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Renfro’s hand trembled so that he could hardly pull 
the knife from his trousers pocket. It was followed by a 
note book from which he tore two sheets of paper. Quickly 
he opened one blade, the thinnest of the three in his knife, 
warmed it with several breaths, then slipped it under 
one of the frozen eyebrows on the window pane. 


THE MYSTERY 

OF THE 

MISSING EYEBROWS 

By STEPHEN RUDD 


/ 

The Newpaper Boys’ Series 


Illustrated J 


Published by the 
R. H. Gore Publishing Co. 





A WORD TO ALL 
NEWSPAPER BOYS 

This volume, the “MYSTERY OF THE MISSING 
EYEBROWS,” is the first of twelve books written about 
newspaper boys by an old newspaper boy, and the picture 
of Renfro Horn is the likeness of a flesh and blood news- 
paper carrier, the real Renfro Horn, who inspired these 
twelve books, that the newspaper boys of these United 
States might understand the responsibility they bear to 
the world. 

The newspaper that you take each night to your sub- 
scriber’s door plays a great part in the life of each sub- 
scriber. Thru rain and snow and cold you go, and if you 
are a good carrier, as all newspaper boys should be, you 
will overcome all problems to have your paper there at 
the exact time each day, as early as you can get there, re- 
gardless of weather, unmindful of play, striving all the 
time to be first to deliver papers in your territory. 

And if you are to succeed later in life, you will con- 
stantly strive to make route gains for your newspaper. A 
new subscriber each week, a gain of only one new sub- 
scription each week, if you do it regularly, will mean that 
you are a good carrier, as good as Renfro Horn and Ren- 
fro is one of the best, for he carried papers on a route for 
the writer of this book who is a circulation manager. 

When your subscribers quit, make them give you a 
good reason. And collect your bills. When folks do not 
pay, tell them about the six or seven times you come to 
their door each week, and ask them if they can do you just 
the one favor, and remind them you bring the biggest 
value in the world for the money, the news of the whole 
world, plus your good service. 

Newspaper boys are becoming the great men of the 
world. We have one of them as president of these United 
States. Others are in high places. The newspaper train- 
ing is valuable, as much so as school, but you must look 
about you and make mental notes and you must be a go- 
getter like Renfro Horn. And here he is. Read about 
this newest and greatest Boy hero, who is just a carrier of 
newspapers like yourself. And when you know him as 
well as we do, you will like him quite as well, and you will 
want to follow his many adventures in the other books to 
come. 

By The Author 

w 

The R. H. Gore Publishing Co., 

General Offices, Myers Building, 

Terre Haute, Ind. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I. THE MYSTERIOUS HOUSE 7 

II. RENFRO WANTS A NEWSPAPER ROUTE ... 18 

III. A STRANGE MAN AT A WINDOW .... 27 

IY. A NEW DOG AT THE OLD HOUSE .... 38 

Y. THE STRANGER COMES AGAIN .... 47 

VI. HELEN WIER IS KIDNAPED 37 

VII. RENFRO TAKES THE EYEBROWS .... 67 

VIII. RENFRO GETS A SHOCK 76 

IX. TRACKS AT THE CABIN 86 

X. THE LIGHT ON THE INDIAN GRAVES ... 97 

XL RENFRO BECOMES A MENTOR 107 

XII. THE SCHATCHES ON THE WINDOW . . .117 

XIII. A TRIP TO THE CABIN 127 

XIV. THE MAN IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE . . . .137 

XV. A DEAL IN TURKEYS 147 

XVI. BOY SCOUTS TO THE RESCUE 156 

XVII. RENFRO FINDS THE MYSTERY MAN . . .165 

XVIII. THREE MEN rN THE PLOT 173 

XIX. RENFRO IS KIDNAPED 182 

XX. HIDDEN IN THE CAVE 191 

XXI. HELEN WIER IS FOUND 199 

XXII. THE LIGHTS ARE REVEALED 206 

XXIII. HELEN TALKS TO RENFRO 215 

XXIV. LANG TAMMY” HELPS RENFRO ESCAPE . . .224 

XXV. THE GLOBE GETS A SCOOP 233 



s 


THE MYSTERY OF THE 
MISSING EYEBROWS. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE MYSTEBOUS HOUSE. 

R ENFRO Horn was quite sure that Cap- 
tain Pete would never have spoken had 
he not dropped the rabbit. But the 
sound of its frozen body striking the hard crust 
on the top of the snow made the old man turn 
around to discover the reason for the sound. 
And at the same time he saw the rabbit he saw 
Renfro. 

“Oh,” he snarled, “8pyin’ on me ag’in — 
sneakin' on an old man's own grounds.” 

The jerking of his shoulders broke the string 
which held the other rabbits to his shoulder. 
A rattle like falling twigs. They were all on 
the top of the snow. With a rush the old man 
was down on all fours trying to roll them to- 
gether. 

Renfro stepped up to help him. And then he 
saw the three quails and stopped. One minute 


8 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


he stared at them: the next he stooped and 
fumbled with the tops of his shoes. 

When he looked down at the ground again 
the quails were gone, and the rabbits in a close 
heap. Renfro knew what was under the pile, 
but he pretended not to have seen them. He 
remembered the notices the game marshal had 
had posted about quail hunting the week before. 

Imprisonment and tine for the first offense. 
Captain Pete had one of these notices on his 
own big front gate. 

‘ ‘ Pretty good luck?” Renfro twisted at the 
top button on his mackinaw. “ Fourteen rab- 
bits I should guess.” 

‘ £ Twenty- two , ’ 1 Captain Pete was proud of 
his good fortune. “And all shot in my own 
fields. You can go on, buddy. I’ll tote them 
down to my shack myself.” 

“Down to the shack?” 

Renfro asked the question. Captain Pete 
answered it. “Yes, I’m a stayin’ down there 
this winter. An old man like me can’t chop 
wood enough to keep the big house warm. I 
didn’t even try to. Moved down to the shack 
in September.” 


THE MYSTERIOUS HOUSE 


9 


With a last look at the pile of frozen rabbits 
Renfro walked slowly away down toward the 
road which led back to town. The three quails 
and the threatened fine were instantly forgot- 
ten. But a big question was in his mind. 

If Captain Pete had been living in the shack 
ever since September, then who had been liv- 
ing in the big house ? Four times recently, when 
he had been out on late walks like this one, he 
had seen queer lights spring from its windows. 

They didn’t stay in one place but seemed to 
flash from one room to another. The last time 
they had been in the right hand room in the 
upper story and then suddenly had gone out 
and flashed in the lower hand corner. He had 
thought it queer then, but had regarded them 
as certain proofs of Captain Pete’s queer mind. 

Where the two paths, the short cut and the 
longer way round intersected, Renfro paused 
uncertainly. The short one meant a saving of at 
least a quarter of an hour and he would be on 
time for supper. The longer one would make 
him late and bring upon his head the reproofs 
of both his mother and father. 

Yet he wouldn’t know about the lights if he 


10 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


chose the short cut. And he had to know about 
them tonight. Better risk his family’s wrath 
than miss a chance to solve this mystery. 

And Renfro hurried down the long path 
which led past the big white house. 

Just after he was out on the road he met 
Clint Moore, the boy who sold chestnuts on 
the Horns’ home street in the early fall. 
“Who’s living in the old Hall house!” Renfro 
asked him. 

Clint whistled, “Just old dippy Captain Pete 
Hall,” he laughed. “An he’s worse off his nut 
than ever this winter. Don’t have no fire nor 
nothin’. We’d think he was dead if we didn’t 
see his lights of nights once in a while and see 
him agoin’ huntin’ past the house.” 

Renfro stared at him. The dusk was begin- 
ning to get heavy, but he could still see Clint’s 
eyes and he knew he was telling the truth. He 
started to ask him another question when Clint 
said, “I’m going your way so we might just 
as well walk along together if you don’t mind. 
There’s a basket ball game in town tonight and 
I’m going to go and stay at my aunt’s.” 

He talked on about the ball game but Renfro 


THE MYSTERIOUS HOUSE 


11 


wasn’t listening. He was staring at the big 
Hall house which was less than a quarter of a 
mile ahead of them. It set back off the road 
another quarter of a mile and in front of it 
was a long row of pine trees. 

They almost shut off all view of the old white 
shell whose original owners had claimed that 
it was “a palace with fourteen rooms.” But 
in the upper right hand corner of it a light 
was plainly visible to both boys and — 

‘ ‘ There’s the old fellow now.” Clint pointed 
at the small window, thru the ragged blind of 
which were gleams of light. ‘‘Don’t see it often 
but some times — ” 

And then the light suddenly went out. 

Renfro was silent. Captain Pete with his 
twenty-two rabbits and three quails was back 
in the woods. He was sure of that. But who 
could have had that light? And did Captain 
Pete really live in the shack now or had that 
been merely a story he had told to take Renfro ’s 
attention away from the quails? 

Renfro was still wondering about that when 
they reached the end of the car line and boarded 
the car which took them past his home. Clint 


12 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


would have to transfer at Liberty Avenue. 

They were the only passengers on the car 
until three paper carriers with their big bulky 
paper bags got on a few blocks farther up the 
line. When each had finished carrying his own 
route he had waited for the others. Riding in 
together gave them a chance to talk over profits, 
new subscribers and the adventures they en- 
countered on their routes. 

Renfro tried to listen to them and to Clint 
at the same time. His questions about Captain 
Pete had reminded Clint of an old hired man 
they had once had. He had known Captain 
Pete Hall before he got to be so queer. There 
had been a brother who had been wild to get 
rich. He and some confederates from another 
city had made counterfeit money in the little 
shack on the Hall place. 

“Captain Pete found their outfit but he didn’t 
know his brother was one of the counterfeiters 
so he went to the sheriff about it and the whole 
gang was arrested. His brother got the stiff est 
sentence of the whole lot. 

“He hated Captain Pete then,” Clint went 
on with his story. “He said that when he got 


THE MYSTERIOUS HOUSE 


13 


out he was goin’ to kill him. Worryin’ about 
that upset Pete’s mind.” 

When Renfro asked him about the time at 
which the brother was to be free again Clint 
shook his head. The hired man had never told 
him anything about the length of the sentence 
Pete’s brother had gotten. He had told all of 
the story he knew. His mother had once said 
that Captain Pete’s brother was dead. “ Bet- 
ter off that way than the way Pete is,” he 
laughed. 

When he got off at the corner several other 
passengers entered the car. Renfro studied 
them — the man with the beetling eyebrows and 
weak mouth, the woman with the near seal coat 
and the genuine diamonds. There was some- 
thing queer about them. The papers recently 
told the story of a jewelshop theft. Renfro be- 
gan to wonder. 

The carrier boys jostled against him as they 
went to leave the car. The little one was brag- 
ging about a ride he had taken on the patrol 
wagon the night before. There had been some 
trouble in the street on which his route lay 
and the corner police had taken him along to 


14 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


help give directions about the location of some 
houses. 

And then Renfro’s own street was called. 
With an effort he left the interesting couple, 
the lively wide awake carrier boys, and the two 
men in uniform. His own avenue lay before 
him, placid and uninteresting. The bright street 
lights made every corner on it as visible as if 
it were in the day time. 

He ran up the great stone steps to his own 
home. He opened the door, entered the hall 
and knew he was late for supper. With a dash 
he was up stairs and to the bath room to wash 
his face and hands. 

And downstairs in the dining room his par- 
ents were discussing him. His father, tall and 
thin and patrician looking, adjusted his horn 
rimmed spectacles and said once more that he 
knew his son was queer. Otherwise why would 
he walk alone as he did? If he didn’t go out 
to some queer spot he walked around the home 
yard. Why, once he had counted one hundred 
trips Renfro had made around the house, his 
head down and his feet moving at a fairly rapid 
pace. 


THE MYSTERIOUS HOUSE 


15 


Other thirteen year old boys were playing 
ball or visiting in the drug stores. It was un- 
canny — this way he had of walking alone. 

Mrs. Horn, also tall and thin and socially 
graceful, rustled her stiff silk dress and 
frowned. She too, thought Renfro was queer. 
But she was sure it was all due to the detective 
stories he read continually. Mary had told her 
that morning of seeing a light under his door 
at about three o’clock one night, at half past 
one on another, and when she had slipped down 
there had found that he was reading. 

1 ‘ They are about horrible crimes, ’ ’ she shud- 
dered. “It worries me so that I cannot sleep. 
I am afraid he will cultivate criminal tenden- 
cies. What he reads will influence him, I’m 
sure. Now I read of a boy — ” 

Mr. Horn shook his head. “Nonsense,” he 
said shortly. “There’s no criminals in our 
families. Renfro is a little queer. None of us 
boys was the least bit like him. But he ’s clever 
with all his queer streaks. Why in that con- 
tinued story — that detective one he coaxed me 
to read, he had the mystery all solved before 
the last chapter was published.” 


16 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


Well, Mrs. Horn was determined of one 
thing. If Renfro had to read such queer stories 
he should not do it in the middle of the night. 
4 4 I’ll change his room,” she said with emphasis. 
4 4 There is that old music room right across 
from — ” 

4 4 From mine,” Renfro finished in the door 
way. 4 4 And I’d like to have it for my own li- 
brary,’ ’ he added and walked to the table. 

His unsatisfactory explanation of his walk 
half angered his father. But he did not know 
what to say about it. The report card Renfro 
had brought home a few days before had been 
almost perfect. He couldn’t command him to 
hurry from school to study. He was just ready 
to mention some errand he had at his office 
when Mrs. Horn spoke. 

4 4 Renfro,” her voice was fretful and accus- 
ing. 44 I needed you this afternoon to go out 
to Captain Pete Hall’s for me. It’s rabbit 
season now and I wanted some for dinner to- 
morrow. I waited over an hour for you and 
then I drove out there by myself.” 

She shivered. 4 4 It’s an uncanny place — that 
big house is. The shrubbery has grown every- 


THE MYSTERIOUS HOUSE 


17 


where and the weatherboards and shutters 
which have dropped off the house lay just where 
they have fallen. It was like working my way 
thru a maze to get to the door. And what made 
it worse it was just getting dark and — ” 

“And Captain Pete wasn’t home,” Renfro 
finished for her remembering again the three 
quails, the rabbits and the shack story the old 
man had told back in the woods. 

Mrs. Horn gave him a severe look. She al- 
lowed no one to interrupt her without giving 
them a reproof. 

“Yes, he was,” she snapped back, “but he 
didn’t have any rabbits for sale. What was 
worse he said he wouldn’t have any at all. He 
mumbled something about not going to hunt this 
season and shut the door in my face.” 

With a gasp Renfro half rose from his chair, 
stared at his mother, heard his father’s gruff 
command to behave himself, and settled back 
in his seat again, smoothing out his napkin with 
a great effort. But his eyes remained round 
and his mouth opened and closed several times 
before he spoke. 


CHAPTER II. 


RENFRO WANTS A NEWSPAPER ROUTE. 

W HEN Renfro did manage to speak he 
asked his mother another question. 
“What time was that, mother ?” 

Mrs. Horn studied a minute. The question 
annoyed her but she was too well bred not to 
answer it. “Oh, about five, I should imagine. 
I waited until four thirty for you before I left 
the house, and I was back at half past five. Why 
do you ask, Renfro ?” 

Instead of answering her, Renfro asked an- 
other question. “Are you sure it was Captain 
Pete, mother? You know he is old now and 
changed and — ” he hesitated and finished lame- 
ly, “It might have been some one else.” 

His mother’s high bred voice was impatient. 
She wanted to dismiss the subject and discuss 
finances with her husband, showing him her 
need for a larger allowance. “Of course, I am 
sure it was Captain Pete. Haven’t I bought 
turkeys of him for five seasons? Of course, 
he looks old now. He looked that way the first 
time I saw him. And, Renfro, please be still 


A NEWSPAPER ROUTE 


19 


and let your father and me talk about some- 
thing much more important. ’ ’ 

The steel like edge to her words clipped off 
any further questions Renfro wanted to ask. 
But tho he couldn't ask them out loud they 
surged back and forth in his mind while he 
ate. Could he have been mistaken about the 
time he saw Captain Pete in the woods? Had 
it taken him and Clint a longer time to walk 
to the car line than it did him when he was 
alone? 

And if it did, then why was Captain Pete 
unwilling to sell any of the twenty-two rabbits ? 

Now there had been the three quails. Renfro 
was sure that Captain Pete saw him staring 
at them. Could he have recognized Mrs. Horn 
and been afraid that Renfro might tell her 
about the quails? A denial of having hunted 
might throw them off the track should they 
feel it their duty to report to the game warden 
what Renfro had seen. 

But Renfro smiled at his own last conclusion. 
Captain Pete Hall was too wise a man to be- 
lieve that. Also he was too greedy to miss the 
chance of selling any of his game. 


20 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


But Renfro’s thoughts were diverted from 
the old hunter and the inhabitant of the big old 
house by his father who directed a question 
to him. The discussion with his wife over fi- 
nances reminded Mr. Horn that his son too 
had an allowance. “ Keeping your book so that 
it balances this month?” he clipped out his 
words, ‘ ‘ And did you save anything last % 9 9 
“Yes sir,” Renfro smiled. “I saved half 
of my allowance last month. I want to buy — ” 
“Some new detective stories.” Mr. Horn 
laughed and turned the conversation back to 
his wife again. 

Renfro felt as if he could not stand it a 
minute longer. With a low apology he rose 
from the table and then they noticed him. 
“Renfro,” his mother spoke sharply, “You are 
not to go out of the house tonight — not even 
to walk around the yard.” 

His father curtly repeated her command. 
And with sinking heart Renfro left the room, 
wandered thru the library and dragged his feet 
up the stair way to his own room. It was only 
half past seven o’clock. And he did not want 
to read. 


A NEWSPAPER ROUTE 


21 


He walked to the window and opened it. The 
cold air sharpened his brain. He looked over 
to the south. Yes, that was the right direction. 
Just three miles from the court house tower 
was Captain Pete’s tumbling ancestral mansion 
and the little shack in which Renfro and the 
old man, before he had gotten so grouchy, had 
once roasted potatoes and meat. 

“I’m sure it was Captain Pete and I’m sure 
it was about five o’clock when I saw him. Now 
mother must have been mistaken — ” he began 
to think and then stopped. 

Slowly he closed the window. “Mother,” he 
spoke out loud deliberately, “saw some one 
else. Pete has rented that big house or been 
scared out of it, or some one who knows how 
secluded a life Pete lives, has discovered that 
he is down in the shack for the winter and is 
making the big house his headquarters.” 

His hands went deep into his pockets. His 
mind began to make definite plans for ways 
and means to solve the mystery of the stranger 
whom he was sure his mother had seen. He 
himself would watch the house and also the 
shack. There was still the possibility that Cap* 


22 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


tain Pete might have hurried home and he, 
Renfro, might have mistaken the time a few 
minutes. 

In that case there was something mysterious 
about the shack and Captain Pete did not want 
him to make any more trips or visits there, 
giving as an excuse that it was his new home. 
4 4 But I’m going out there tomorrow afternoon,’ ’ 
he began, 4 4 and every other afternoon and even- 
ing I can, only first I’ll have to find an excuse 
which will satisfy the folks.” 

For half an hour he worked framing excuses 
for those trips. And then Mary, the second 
maid, brought one directly to his room. Mary 
was a woman with imagination and romance, 
she said, tho in her form she was fat and homely 
and of Scotch descent. Cautiously she tapped 
at Renfro’s door. 

4 4 Here’s the Evening Globe, Mr. Renfro,” 
she whispered, thrusting the folded paper into 
his hand. 4 4 Right on the front page there’s 
more about that big jewel robbery. Them hired 
detectives don’t seem to get nowhere with their 
clues and I thought mebbe me, with my imag- 
ination, and you so clever in workin’ out mys- 


A NEWSPAPER ROUTE 


23 


teries, we could beat them once. It would 
show — ” 

But Renfro didn’t hear the rest of her hopes. 
The paper clasped in his hand became the 
master key to the mysterious house. It had 
reminded him of the carrier boys, who had 
ridden home on the car with him. 

They knew their routes like he did his school 
books. He would buy a route — this particular 
suburban route which lay closest to the old 
Hall home. None of his trips past it would 
arouse suspicion then. 

He clapped his hands. He would ask his 
father’s permission the first thing in the morn- 
ing. Experience had taught him that it was 
no time to make requests directly after an argu- 
ment between his father and mother. But his 
father’s ill humor didn’t last long. By morn- 
ing he would be his dignified, businesslike and 
his exceedingly fair self again. 

Renfro was right in that surmise. Smiling, 
almost affable, his father offered his son half 
of the morning paper when he entered the din- 
ing room for breakfast. But Renfro shook his 
head. “I want to talk about a job, Dad,” he 


24 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


said. “I want your permission to buy a paper 
route, one of the Evening Globe ’s.” 

ITis mother answered his request. Such an 
unheard of thing was out of the question. None 
of the boys on their street, none of the sons of 
the people in their set, ever thought of such 
undignified proceedings. And she would not 
allow her son to do it either. 

“Well,” his father’s eyes twinkled, “Don’t 
pay too much for it. Buy a cheap one and see 
how well it wears.” 

A direct look at his wife quieted her on the 
subject. After Renfro had left the room he 
explained his stand. “The only way to stop 
that kid,” he shook his head, “is to let him 
have enough of anything. I’ll see he gets enough 
of that paper carrier business right in the start. 
I’ll stop on my way down and see the circula- 
tion manager of The Globe. I’ll tell him to give 
Renfro the toughest proposition of a route he 
has. A week from now our worries will be 
over.” 

In the circulation manager’s office an hour 
later he explained his errand. “His mother 
doesn’t want him to carry a route,” said Mr. 


A NEWSPAPER ROUTE t 


25 


Horn. He couldn’t tell his own stand to this 
shrewd business like young fellow, “and I 
promised her I’d see he didn’t carry one long,” 
he added. “Give the boy the first one you 
have which is a tough deal. And rough 
it up on him all you can.” 

“Mr. Horn,” George Bruce looked directly 
into the older man ’s eyes, ‘ ‘ we have some routes 
which don’t need the least bit of roughing up 
to make them tough propositions for men like 
me and even you. One is vacant right now. The 
business manager wants me to drop that route, 
and I’ve almost decided to do so since it has 
long been a dead loss on our hands.” 

He thumped his fist on the table. “I’m going 
to put your son out there, and because I still 
believe that that route can be made into a pay- 
ing proposition I’m going to expect him to 
make good. I’m doing what you ask me to do 
— am I not?” 

“And,” he continued after Mr. Horn had 
given him a hesitant nod, “If he fails you will 
have your wish; if he succeeds I’m going to 
have mine.” 

He didn’t speak again until Mr. Horn was 


26 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


out of the room and then he swung around in 
his swivel chair and faced his alert stenogra- 
pher. ‘ 4 Miss Newell,” he said, and there was 
a gleam of interest in his keen blue eyes, “Pm 
anxious to see that boy. Mr. Horn’s a king 
of finance. Mrs. Horn is a society queen. The 
young prince — well, let’s see how he wears the 
family coronets.” 


CHAPTER III. 


A STRANGE MAN AT A WINDOW. 

L ATE that afternoon, at four o’clock to be 
exact, Renfro Horn entered the circula- 
tion manager’s office. Behind him lay 
a line of offices thru which he had passed, and 
a line of men with whom he had argued and 
urged his way to this seeming potentate of The 
Globe. 

“Mr. Bruce doesn’t see applicants for 
routes” he had been told exactly seven times. 

But now he was in Mr. Bruce’s office and 
looking directly at that man, who was dictating 
a letter to Miss Newell, his stenographer. Ren- 
fro with his hat in his hand stared around the 
big room, as simply and well furnished as his 
own father’s private office. He liked the pic- 
tures on the walls — some of which were the 
originals from which the Globe’s daily cartoons 
had been made and others, photographs of men 
famous in the newspaper world, who had start- 
ed their careers as route carriers. 

Renfro was studying a photograph of a full 
faced man with a high forehead when Mr. 


28 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


Bruce finished his letter and looked at him. And 
he liked him immediately for the boyish way 
he had of smiling, the cordial gleam in his eyes 
and the sincere tone of his voice while he had 
dictated. 

“Pm Renfro Horn,” he said, “and I want 
to buy a route if there is one vacant.’ ’ 

Mr. Bruce started. “Oh, yes,” he narrowed 
his eyes and Renfro realized that he felt those 
same shrewd eyes grasping for his past, his 
present and future ability all at once. “Any 
particular part of town, son?” 

“Yes sir, out south whenever there’s a va- 
cancy, Mr. — ” 

“Bruce” finished the other. 

“I would like to have the Washington Ave- 
nue route — the one farthest out.” Renfro fin- 
ished. 

“Who told you it was vacant?” 

Renfro’s eyes flashed. “Is it right now?” 
he asked and added, “I was afraid I would 
have to wait a while for it.” 

“Some fellow has been stringing him on that 
route.” George Bruce thought immediately. 
Out loud he began, “Now, son — ” 


A STRANGE MAN AT A WINDOW 29 


Then he remembered the promise he had 
made Renfro’s father. This was a worse route 
even than the one he had in mind when he had 
talked to Mr. Horn that morning. It was a 
dead loss. Pride alone kept George Bruce from 
stopping that route. The Globe’s rival paper 
claimed that they made money on their paper 
in that part of town, and until he had dis- 
credited that claim George Bruce was deter- 
mined to keep that route alive. 

Yet only that morning Andy Andrews had 
announced that after today he would make no 
more trips on that route. Here before him was 
his salvation. Mr. Horn had wanted his boy 
to make a failure. All day whenever George 
Bruce remembered the interview that morning 
he had hoped the boy would succeed. Now 
after he had seen Renfro he wanted him more 
than ever to succeed. 4 4 And he hasn’t a chance 
there,” he admitted to himself. 

4 4 You won’t make much money out there at 
first, son,” he talked slowly. 4 4 In fact the boy 
who has been out there has lost so much that 
he gave up the route this morning.” 

44 I can build it up,” Renfro’s eyes held en- 


30 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


treaty. 

George Bruce nodded. 4 ‘Slowly,” he re- 
turned. 

“Do I get it?” 

Robert Bruce looked up and down Renfro’s 
sturdy body, at bis determined dark blue eyes, 
at bis boyish stern mouth. “Yes,” be answered, 
‘ ‘ and if you make good out there you can have 
your choice of any route in town.” He turned 
to Miss Newell. “Call Morrison, please.” 

He was still studying Renfro when Morrison, 
the route manager, for the south side of Linden- 
dale entered the office. “This is Renfro Horn, 
Morrison,” he told the younger man. “He is 
to have Old Grief route. Andrews gave it up 
this morning. 

“Yes sir, he was telling me so,” Morrison 
looked keenly at Renfro. “He’s waiting now to 
take some other boy out to teach him the route. 
Shall I take him?” he nodded at Renfro. 

“Renfro Horn” the circulation manager sup- 
plied the missing name. “Yes, do, please.” 

In the outer office Renfro asked permission 
to telephone his father. “I don’t want them to 
worry if I’m late” he explained. 


A STRANGE MAN AT A WINDOW 31 


“Oh, you ’ll be late all right.” Morrison 
laughed easily. ‘ 4 Andy ’ll tell you about that.” 

When Renfro came back from the telephone 
Morrison had completed his survey of him. 
“You’ve got good legs, Horn,” he admitted, 
“and can walk that route. It’s all over every- 
where. Now get good ears, listen to what Andy 
tells you tonight and I tell you later. We’ve 
got lots of tough customers out there, and I 
want you to watch them, See?” 

“And say,” he went on before Renfro could 
answer, “I don’t like your name. It sounds 
too much like a map name. Get something hu- 
man to use for a carrier name. Ever have a 
nickname ? 

Another question without an answer — all due 
to the speed with which he talked. “I’ll give 
you a good one — Hooch, if you please — Hooch 
Horn. Sounds good — doesn’t it? It has a 
business like twang to it. So I’ll just let it go.” 

He hurried “Hooch” out to the hall in which 
Andy was waiting. He introduced the two 
boys, gave them car fare to the station at which 
their papers were delivered and hurried them 
away. “I’m giving you the east route you 


32 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


asked for, Andy,” he said, 4 ‘but it will cost you 
something rather high. Old Grief is the only 
route the Globe has to give away.” 

Andy chatted all the way out to the station. 
A steady stream of questions followed his de- 
scription of what he termed “the poorest pay- 
ing and hardest route in the city.” 

Who had wished Old Grief on Renfro ? How 
had Morrison gotten hold of him? Would he 
ask for another route as he went broke on Old 
Grief? And finally how much experience had he 
had with route work? 

Renfro, recently christened 4 4 Hooch, ’ ’ evaded 
all direct answers. It was almost dusk when 
they reached the station. He helped Andy tear 
open the two packages of papers waiting for 
them there, stuff them into the paper bag and 
carry them down the street. 

“We’ll throw them tonight,” Andy was a vir- 
tual dictator this last trip of his. “But when 
it’s windy or rainy you want to be sure to get 
them on the porch. Nobody wants to come out 
here to run down complaints.” 

“There’s the worst dead beat in town, 
Hooch,” he pointed toward a shot gun house far 


A STEANGE MAN AT A WINDOW 33 


back in a narrow yard. 4 ‘ He ’ll try to get you — 
does every new boy. Turn him down. He owes 
me $1.65.” 

They turned the corner and Andy pointed 
down the street, “Out there — ” his finger went 
out directly in a line with his face — “there 
in that big old house lives the queerest man in 
the country. No, not in the house” he correct- 
ed himself, “It’s too rummy a shell for anybody 
to live in. But in a cabin out there. I went out 
last night and bought six rabbits and every 
one of ’em was shot clean thru the head — the 
prettiest shots I ever saw. Go out some time. ’ ’ 

“Was he in the shack you say?” 

“Yep,” Andy rolled the paper for the next 
customer, “I went to the door but I didn’t get 
in. It looked interesting but he shut the door 
while he hunted out my rabbits. Queer old 
bird!” 

Renfro wished that their route took them out 
to the white house so that he could see whether 
or not there was a light there tonight. In the 
library at noon he had walked past the case of 
old coins and was reminded of the counterfeit- 
ing story Clint had told him. 


34 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


If Captain Pete’s brother had returned he 
might be making that sort of coin again. But 
his thoughts were cut short by an exclamation 
from Andy. A heavy set old man leading a 
dog by a heavy strap, had jostled into them. 
The dog barked sharply and tugged at the strap, 
but the man quieted him without a jerk or com- 
mand — just a simple Scotch name muttered in 
a tone rich with a Scotch accent “Lang 
Tammy. ’ 9 

And the dog had followed him obediently. 

4 4 That old Bird ’s a new inhabitant out here , 9 ’ 
Andy stared after the pair. 4 4 Suppose he ’ll be 
wanting to start the paper, Hooch. Look out 
for him, and get his money first. Remember 
what they say about the perils of parting a 
Scotchman and his money.” 

Renfro tried to watch the old man with oc- 
casional glances over his shoulder but Andy 
raced him along. The old man had not turned 
off the long street when he disappeared in the 
dusk. 

“I don’t believe I’ll remember all these 
places.” Renfro ventured to remark. 

4 4 Then forget the ones who owe accounts.” 


A STRANGE MAN AT A WINDOW 35 


Andy laughed facetiously and hurried still 
more. “This is a case where I’m not prolong- 
ing any fond farewells,’ ’ he ended slyly. “Will 
you, Hooch, when you leaver’ 

“Oh, I’ll stay,” retorted Renfro and again 
Andy laughed. 

Renfro thought of that laugh the next after- 
noon as he passed along the route. And it was 
a long, slow trip. He had remembered very few 
houses at which Andy had left the Evening 
Globe. After trying to make out landmarks 
which he remembered from the night before 
and failing to do so Renfro had adopted his 
own way of locating customers. 

When in doubt he merely went to the front 
door and asked their names and what paper 
they took. 

The street lights were on when he reached 
Wayne Street— the street Andy had termed the 
aristocratic portion of his route. “Everybody 
takes the paper here and everybody pays for 
it,” he had given the information proudly, 
“Even to Judge Wier, the old duffer.” 

“Paying promptly is his policy,” Andy tried 
to be witty. “The fellows he sentences in court 


36 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


can tell you that, and he gives generous tips 
besides payment in full. ’ ’ 

At the corner Renfro slipped off his gloves 
and blew on his fingers to warm them. The 
wind was losing its volume, but the temperature 
was dropping. The ice in the gutter had a hard, 
unmelting look. Little flurries of snow played 
around the light globe like myriads of tiny bugs 
in summer. 

“I’ll fold my papers at the drug store to- 
morrow evening,” Renfro growled. Andy 
might have told him that. He might have been 
a little more definite, too, in showing him the 
route. 

A big, wooly dog brushed past him and ran 
down the street. “Lang Tammy” Renfro re- 
membered the name the Scotchman had used the 
afternoon before, “I wonder if that could be 
he. He was just about that size. He — ” 

And then he stopped abruptly in the middle 
of the block. Directly across the street from 
him was Judge Wier’s old fashioned brick 
house. The front room was dark, but the room 
back of it was lighted and the window blind 
raised more than half way. 

The light coming from it struck the shrubbery 


A STRANGE MAN AT A WINDOW 37 

and showed a dark figure lurking there. The 
house next door was dark. Walking slowly on 
so as not to arouse the lurking figure’s suspic- 
ion, Renfro watched him stealthily. 

Suddenly the light in the room was dimmed, 
and the front room became brilliantly lighted. 
At the same minute the lurking figure slouched 
out of the shrubbery, close to the window with 
the raised blind and stood there quietly staring 
into the room for a few minutes. And then he 
slouched back into the shrubbery again. 


CHAPTER IV. 


A NEW DOG AT THE OLD HOUSE. 

F OR a few minutes Renfro Horn stood ir- 
resolute. Then he darted back down the 
street a short distance, crossed it, slipped 
along the sidewalk until forty feet from the 
shrubbery, dropped onto his hands and knees 
and crawled to the spot where the peeper had 
disappeared. The mysterious man had vanished. 

A hurried but close search failed to reveal 
where he had gone. Renfro did not knock at the 
door. He had no proof to offer that the man 
had been at the window. Telling such a story 
as that to Judge Wier, reputed to be the town’s 
most courageous citizen, would win him a laugh. 

As soon as he had finished the street and in- 
cidentally his route, Renfro walked back to 
Washington Avenue and down it toward the 
Hall house. It was dark but his parents would 
not be worried if he were quite late in getting 
home. They had predicted all sorts of difficul- 
ties for this evening. 

After a little while Renfro slowed down his 
pace. The big white house, the cabin a little far- 


A NEW DOG AT THE OLD HOUSE 39 


ther on, Captain Pete and the stranger were 
only a short distance away and he had as yet 
made no reason for coming to their premises at 
night. A request for rabbits ? He shook his head. 

“I won’t go in. I’ll just peek,” Renfro 
vowed to himself. “At least that will give me a 
beginning for a cue.” 

Directly opposite the three big apple trees 
which remained of the Hall orchard, a big aire- 
dale came sniffing toward him. Renfro stopped, 
gave him a keen look and called softly, “Lang 
Tammy— here sir— Lang Tammy!” 

The big dog sniffed his way to Renfro. After 
reaching him he gave a few more investigating 
sniffs and then seized Andy’s discarded paper 
bag playfully in his teeth. He tugged at it with 
all his might. Laughing Renfro tugged back. 

“You’re a peach. of a dog, Lang Tammy,” he 
began, “I’d like — ” 

Then the strange voice did more than had 
the strange appearance. It frightened the big 
dog. Turning sharply he ran back to the apple 
trees. He wheeled around, gave Renfro a look, 
a sharp bark, and trotted into the shrubbery out 
of sight. 

Lang Tammy was a new possession on the 


40 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


Hall place. Captain Pete had not had a dog 
since his collie had been poisoned a year ago. 
Renfro chuckled, 4 4 1 ’ll see him and ask him 
where he got his new dog” he decided, “That 
will help some. He’ll either have to claim or 
deny the dog. And I know positively that Lang 
Tammy’s master is somewhere on this place.” 

He turned off the road, skirted along a rail 
fence, jumped across a ditch and stumbled 
against a rotting stump. Every window in the 
big house was dark. He was making his way 
down to the cabin. The one opening there was 
on the other side of the house and Renfro could- 
n’t be sure whether or not it was lighted till he 
came opposite the cabin. 

He scratched both of his hands on some 
briers. His paper bag — Andy’s discarded one 
to be exact, — caught on a paling on the second 
fence and tore loose with a ripping sound. The 
wind rattled the limbs on the old trees and made 
queer spectral sounds on the tin roof of the 
big house directly opposite the cabin. 

Renfro looked sharply at it again. It was 
still dark. And then he stumbled against the 
cabin, felt his way around it and stood close to 


A NEW DOG AT THE OLD HOUSE 41 


the window. 

Inside there was a small lamp burning. The 
chimney was smoke stained and the wick, turned 
low, made still more smoke. But the light 
showed the rude furniture of the room, the meal 
almost ready on the table. 

Yet no one was in the cabin. 

Up at the big house it was all dark. Captain 
Pete couldn’t be there. Renfro shouldered his 
torn bag and made his way back to the road. 
It was interesting here and he wanted to lurk 
a little longer, but he knew that if he were too 
late in getting home his mother would be un- 
easy. 

“If she worries too much Dad will make me 
give up the route, ’ ’ he thought. 

After which he hurried up the road to the 
side walk. The houses on either side of the 
street were little and in the darkness stood sag- 
ging like the skin of a moldy apple. Some of 
them were lighted; others were dark. Andy 
had said the night before that only about half 
of them were tenanted. 

But in them were probable subscribers for the 
Globe. Just as Renfro had about decided to 


42 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


canvas here the next Saturday, the street car 
slowed to let off a passenger. At the same time 
Renfro swung on to ride back to the end of the 
line and help change the trolley. 

And there sitting opposite him was Old Cap- 
tain Pete clad in his best overcoat and hat. A 
genial smile spread over his face at the sight of 
Renfro. 4 ‘Such rabbit luck,” he ejaculated, 
“as Eve had today! Killed thirty-one and sold 
’em every one afore I left Main Street. Your 
hired gal bought two.” 

When he expressed surprise about Renfro’s 
being on the car so late the carrier showed him 
his empty paper bag. “I’m coming out to get 
you for a new subscriber, ’ ’ he promised. 

Like a battered sail Captain Pete’s head 
shook a denial. “I ain’t got no use for news- 
papers,” he was gruff, “Haint read one regular 
for more than twenty years.” 

“Not since his brother was sent up,” Renfro 
remembered the story Clint had told him. 

Still remembering it he rode into his home 
avenue. And from the corner he walked home. 

Mr. and Mrs. Horn were still in the dining 
room, Mr. Horn was looking thru the afternoon 


A NEW DOG AT THE OLD HOUSE 43 


papers and his wife was toying with some salted 
almonds. She rang the bell when Renfro en- 
tered, and Mary brought in his supper. 

Her broad face spread into a grin when she 
saw Renfro. ‘ 1 Rabbit for supper,’ ’ she whisper- 
ed sibilantly, “I bought it this afternoon of 
Captain Pete Hall myself. Your maw was gone 
but I took it upon myself to do it. It’s broiled 
too.” 

“See Captain Pete, Mary? he asked while he 
ate. “Dolled up, wasn’t he?” 

Mary nodded and simpered. “But his but- 
tons was off something fierce, Renny,” she de- 
clared. “A man like him has no business grow- 
ing up to be a bachelor.” 

Mr. Horn looked over the top of his paper, 
first at Renfro and then at Mary. It wasn’t 
exactly a look of reproof he gave them but rath- 
er of surprise. However, it was enough to stop 
their conversation. 

“Get frightened alone?” Mrs. Horn’s voice 
was full of hope. 

Renfro shook his head. He honestly had not. 
His interest had been aroused however. He 
must talk to Mary alone about Captain Pete 


44 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


and the rabbits. He must — 

And then bis father reached him an envelope. 
“This was in the mail,” be told him, “ post- 
marked The Evening Globe. I suppose it’s 
your contract.” 

Together be and bis wife arose and went into 
the library. Renfro tore open the blue envelope, 
pulled out a card and read it thru before be fair- 
ly understood it. Going back to the beginning 
be read it again. 

“A full gown turkey to every route carrier 
who gets ten new subscribers before Thanks- 
giving Eve”, be drawled. “Well, it’s up to me 
to get some turkeys”, be mused. 

He ate bananas without any cream to save 
time and slipped into the kitchen. The cook 
was out and Mary was reading a novel and 
washing the dishes at the same time. Renfro’s 
entrance startled her so that she let the soap 
drop into the water and the shower which rose 
from the pan, following the splash, went direct- 
ly into both her own and Renfro ’s faces. They 
sputtered and gurgled. 

Finally, Renfro could speak, “Mary,” he 
began, “do you think you could cook six turkeys 


A NEW DOG AT THE OLD HOUSE 45 


all at once?” 

Mary stared at him, “Six turkeys,” she ex- 
claimed. “Who are you wanting me to cook 
for, Benny? Six turkeys, no, I’ll not be cook- 
ing turkeys for all your fine friends! Now in 
this book here where I was reading, there is a 
story about a turkey and a couple what lived on 
opposite farms from where it was raised. It 
was real romantic. The turkey got lost as 
turkeys will, and when the girl went to hunt it 
she found the young man and they fell in love 
and were married. It’s just full of mystery and 
romance.” 

“Well,” Benfro laughed, “none of my tur- 
keys are going to get anyone in bad like that, 
Mary. Sure you’ll cook them — won’t you?” 

“Where’s the turkeys?” Mary was suspi- 
cious. 

“Oh,” Benfro smiled a look of mystery in his 
smile which brought Mary to her feet. “I’ll 
have them here all right in time for Thanks- 
giving day.” 

“And, Mary,” he slipped close to her and 
gave her a comradly look, “There’s something 
on my mind I have to work out. I may need 


46 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


yon to help me. I’m not telling exactly what it is 
yet, but it’s got mystery and maybe some ro- 
mance in it. And you will help if I need you — 
won’t you?” 

Both of Mary’s hands came out of the pan 
of suds. “Mister Renfro,” she said solemnly, 
“Aint I been wantin’ to give up this sort of 
work and go into real detective work for years. 
Why, once I took a correspondence school 
course in it. And I’ll — ” 

Renfro’s hand was raised in warning, “Just 
wait, Mary,” he cautioned, “Just wait until 
I’m ready to tell you, and then you’ll have your 
chance. ’ ’ 

He sauntered back into the dining room. The 
telephone on the stand made him decide to call 
Andy and tell him that he hadn’t missed a single 
customer, that he liked the route and would 
stick. He wanted to know, too, if Andy was 
satisfied with his new route. 

And Renfro took down the receiver. 


CHARPTER V. 


THE STRANGER COMES AGAIN. 

I T became still colder during that night. Ren- 
fro Horn awoke near midnight to feel a 
gale blowing around his ears. He got up, 
shut his east window and crawled back into bed. 
“I’ll bet that tin roof is dancing a regular 
ghost dance on the big house.” he muttered. 

He turned over, pulled the blankets closer 
over his ears. The next minute it was morning, 
and Mary was calling him. “The pipe’s froze 
something fierce, ’ ’ she began , 1 ‘ And you ’ll have 
to eat in the kitchen close to the range.” 

“Suits me all right,” Renfro laughed and 
jumped out of bed. 

At the breakfast table his mother began to 
worry about his route. She predicted that he 
would freeze his feet, and perhaps his hands, 
contract pneumonia and lumbago and then her 
list gave out. His father looked a trifle uneasy 
while she talked but said nothing. 

However, as he and Renfro walked down the 
street together, respectively toward school and 
office, he gave his son some warnings. “Better 


48 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


mind them all too, young man,” he seemed very 
impatient this morning, “if you should happen 
to get sick, bang goes your paper route and no 
argument.” 

A shrill yell drew their attention across the 
street. Two morning paper carriers, who went 
to the Grant School, the same one Renfro at- 
tended, were coming in from finishing their de- 
livery. Their paper bags were drawn around 
their shoulders, and their caps pulled low over 
their ears. 

“Jim froze his right ear almost,” sang the 
taller boy, “and I gave him first aid. One more 
merit badge.” 

“You bet,” Jim agreed, “If you need any 
help tonight call on Bob, Hooch,” 

“Hooch?” Mr. Horn was amazed. 

“Oh, that’s my nickname,” Renfro affected 
carelessness. This was no time he reflected to 
tell how it had been created, nor how popular 
it had become in less than forty-eight hours. 
So he tried to change the subject. “Jim Noel’s 
a first class Boy Scout and he’s trying to win 
enough merit badges to get the eagle rank at the 
Court of Honor session.” 


THE STRANGER COMES AGAIN 49 


Mr. Horn nodded, ‘ ‘That’s all right for the 
other fellows/ ’ he said, “but if you freeze your 
ears you go to a doctor.” 

At that instant Renfro wished he could tell 
his father — a few things — how he had had not 
only his ears but his nose nipped during one of 
his hikes on which he was trying to make some 
discoveries concerning quail tracks. He him- 
self had hound the snow onto them. And Mary 
had helped him with the other applications the 
first aid book advised. 

But he kept still. 

The weather grew milder during the day. 
At noon the ice along the curbing near the 
Grant School was melting a little, hut when 
four o’clock came it had frozen again. Renfro 
and Jim Noel, hurrying along together discus- 
sed a hike and rabbit hunt for Saturday if it 
stayed cold. But just as they had their arrange- 
ments about finished, Renfro remembered the 
turkey contest. 

“Say, Jim,” he broke in suddenly, “I bet a 
turkey that if I can get off my route work to 
go I’ll track down more rabbits than you do.” 

Jim stared at him. “Great guns!” he ejacu- 


50 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


lated, “A turkey? How come?” 

He stared again when he read the card Ren- 
fro showed him. “You’ll never get sixty sub- 
scribers on Old Grief, Hooch,’ ’ he declared. 
“Not unless you pay for their subscriptions 
yourself. Abie Lubin had it for a while and he 
didn’t make anything, so that’s sure proof it’s 
no good.” 

But Renfro only whistled. He and Jim sep- 
arated at the next corner. Beyond the edge 
of the big business districts and thru the resi- 
dential part of town to his route Renfro hurried. 
His papers were at the station. He swung the 
bag on his back, wagered to himself that it 
would be heavier next week, and started on his 
route. 

He stopped at the most promising houses and 
asked for new subscriptions. One woman 
threatened to have him arrested. Another told 
him that the last boy had been crooked and 
failed to mark two of her payments, so that the 
company had sent a collector there; and she 
added that if he wanted to be a friend of hers he 
wouldn’t work for a paper which stood for such 
crookedness. 


THE STRANGER COMES AGAIN 51 


But Renfro persisted, and before be left her 
door bad ber subscription and a week’s pay- 
ment in advance. He also secured four other 
subscriptions before be turned into bis last 
square. 

“Pretty good, old boy, considering tbe time 
you spent in getting warm, and that you’re a 
new recruit.” be said and then laughed. He 
bad been talking out loud and tbe woman who 
was hurrying past him turned round to stare 
back. 

Tbe wind whipped tbe tops of tbe trees and 
made them crackle and roar. Tbe air was so 
cold that flurries of frost seemed to come out 
of nowhere but swirl around everywhere. And 
it was dark except where tbe street lights or 
those in tbe bouses threw long bard gleams out 
into tbe street. 

Suddenly, Renfro stopped. Lurking in tbe 
blackness ahead of him was a low set figure, 
followed by a big dog — tbe airedale be had seen 
tbe night before and the night before that. Ren- 
fro dropped onto his knees so that be could be 
concealed behind tbe water plug and its shadow, 
and he watched. 


52 


THE MISSING EYEBBOWS 


A sudden light from an opened door fell on 
the big dog, and showed it to be with the short, 
heavy set man. As soon as the door was closed 
Benfro was sure he heard a low growl, saw a 
threatening movement and directly afterward 
the dog rushed past him, running as if fright- 
ened to an unusual degree. 

The light was gone again. Benfro put his 
hands over his eyes a minute to accustom them 
to the darkness again, and then rubbed them 
vigorously together. The third and fourth 
fingers on his left hand felt dull. He slipped 
off his glove and rubbed them with snow. 

A half nervous laugh shook him. Suddenly 
he had remembered, no doubt on account of the 
cold water plug against his body, of the time 
he had put his tongue against a frozen pipe. 

The shadow across the street lengthened. The 
heavy man was slouching down the street again, 
up to Judge Wier’s shrubbery and then to the 
window thru which he had gazed the night be- 
fore. Benfro was sure that it was because there 
was no light in that part of the house. 

But the rest of the house was lighted and if 
the door were open the stranger could see into 


THE STRANGER COMES AGAIN 53 


the other room. And he lingered long enough 
and close enough to the window to be studying 
the features of the whole family if they were 
there. 

Renfro, stiff from his posture and the cold, 
could not move. The big dog had been afraid 
of the man. He would no doubt half kill Renfro 
if he discovered that the boy was following him. 
Besides, Renfro reflected, if you want to un- 
ravel a mystery you have to follow a clue to it 
and not burst into open opposition. 

The lights in Judge Wier’s house changed at 
that minute. The part which had been lighted 
was darkened and the front rooms became 
bright instead. And then the lurking stranger 
again retired to the shrubbery. 

As he had done the night before when he 
neared the Judge’s house Renfro dropped onto 
his hands and knees and crawled to the shrub- 
bery but no one was there. Still some one had 
been there and that some one had had some- 
thing in mind which would do harm to either 
the Wier home or family he was sure. 

Judge Wier has scores of enemies. He was 
noted as giving the stiffest sentences of any 


54 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


judge in the city. Auto speeders met with as 
little mercy at his hands as did the most dan- 
gerous criminals. 

‘ ‘ I — really — out — to — warn — him, * ’ Renfro 
chattered, “but — still — he ’ll — laugh.” But he 
did call a number. A tired central informed 
him that she could get no one on that line. It 
seemed to be out of order. 

Then Renfro went back to the kitchen and 
Mary with a determination in his mind. He 
would find some sort of an excuse to give his 
parents for being very late the next evening. 
Then he would follow the short, heavy set 
stranger. He would see if he took the same 
direction his dog did every night — down toward 
the big house where the tin roof rattled and 
made such warning noises. 

An excuse. He frowned, when Mary started 
to speak hut she talked anyway. “Where’s 
them six turkeys you wanted me to cook, 
Renny?” she began, “If it’s the cleanin’ of 
them I have to do then I better begin now 
and — ” 

“And,” Renfro interrupted her laughingly, 
“Mary, you’re a peach with the fuzz still on 


THE STRANGER COMES AGAIN 55 


most of the time. But I know the quality of 
your mind below/ ’ 

He could hardly keep from dancing. Mary 
had suggested the excuse he wanted. The tur- 
keys. Why he had to have them and what bet- 
ter excuse could he offer his parents than that 
he was working for new subscribers. His moth- 
er might object but his father would want him 
to win any contest he entered. 

But before he told them he wanted to talk to 
Mary a little longer. “Mary” he began, “got 
any more rabbits?” 

She shook her head. “He doesn’t bring them 
regular.” 

“Then,” Renfro, suggested, “how would you 
like for me to stop out there — Captain Pete’s 
place is just a little distance from the end of my 
route — well, let ’s say about every other day and 
buy a couple of rabbits from the old fellow? 
Put in sort of a standing order?” 

“Sure Renny, you’re that thoughtful,” Mary 
beamed, “And speaking of turkeys, Renny, I 
read another turkey story today. It has the 
most beautiful plot. And romance too. The 
man was a detective and — ” 


56 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


“And, Mary, we’re going to have one too,” 
Renfro added, “but please, Mary, do be a dear, 
and don’t call me Renny any more. I’ve got a 
business name and I want my real friends to 
use it. After this to you, Mary, I’m Hooch — 
Hooch Horn,” he imitated the route manager’s 
tone exactly, “Hooch Horn, if you please, Mary 
dear. ’ ’ 


CHAPTER VI. 


HELEN WIEB IS KIDNAPED. 

B EFORE Renfro Horn had been awake 
three minutes the next morning he heard 
sounds of great confusion coming up 
from downstairs. His father was talking in a 
loud excited voice, his mother after giving a 
half tone scream began asking questions and 
even Mary was making her share of the confu- 
sion. 

“Another bursted pipe,” Renfro saw the 
heavy frost on the window, drew his conclusion 
and turned over to sleep until they called him. 

Mary’s heavy winter shoes clattered up the 
stairway, crossed the hall and came straight to 
his door. She peeped cautiously into his bed- 
room, her head encased in a pink breakfast cap 
thru which were run blue ribbons. Her mouth 
was half open, her eyes big and her whole face 
a map of mingled surprise, interest and horror. 

“Renny — Renny,” she called softly and then 
changed, “Hooch — oh, Hooch — your pa just 
brought in the morning paper and Helen Wier 
was kidnaped last night right out of her pa’s 


58 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


own home and she aint been brought back or 
they don’t know nothin’ about it and — ” 

Renfro was sitting bolt upright in bed. 
‘ 4 What did you say, Mary?” he demanded. 
“ Helen Wier kidnaped, When? And how did 
they find out? Now answer my questions first.” 

Observing directions, Mary told him. Helen 
Wier, the judge’s twelve year old daughter had 
been studying in the little east library, as was 
her custom when the family and two guests 
went into the back of the house for coffee and a 
late lunch. She had been sitting at the table 
when they left; when they came back she was 
gone. That was all Mary knew. 

The paper told Renfro a little more. There 
had been no outcry on Helen’s part — no sound 
that anyone had heard. The room showed no 
evidence of a struggle except that a vase of 
flowers on the table was upturned and the books 
she had been studying, all were on the floor. 

When the family had come back into the 
library Helen was not there. Her mother, 
thinking that she had gone upstairs to bed, had 
commented on her going without being told and 
began to talk of other things when she noticed 


HELEN WIER IS KIDNAPED 59 


the books on the floor and became suspicious. 

Helen Wier loved her books as she did her 
friends. She was very careful of them. She 
never would have left them on the floor behind 
her, open with their backs bent to the breaking 
point as were these. And the papers out of her 
notebook were scattered around and under the 
table. 

Mrs. Wier muttered something to the rest 
about being sure something was wrong with 
Helen, rushed upstairs to her room and then 
had begun the search. That she had been kid- 
naped was an assured fact. The problem be- 
fore the police who had been almost instantly 
summoned was to find out who did it and where 
the child had been taken. 

4 ‘Weren’t there no note wanting money?” 
Mary asked the question. 

Mr. Horn who was reading the story shook 
his head. Mary in turn shook hers tho more 
wisely. “Then they’ll be hearin’ from the 
kidnapers before night”, she said with convic- 
tion. “They’ll be telling how much they want 
for her return and where to put it and giving 
all the directions. The book I studied in that 


60 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


home correspondence course said that was the 
way it always went.” 

She ended her speech triumphantly, but no- 
ticing about the same time that no one was pay- 
ing any attention to her backed thru the dining 
room into the kitchen, where she talked to her- 
self about the “ignorance of some people”. 

Renfro, after reading the short, and to him, 
decidedly unsatisfactory story, followed Mary 
out into the kitchen. “The paper didn’t say 
anything about whether or not the telephone 
wires were cut , 9 9 he began. 

Mary’s homely fat face beamed. She liked 
to be taken into some one’s confidence. “Them 
detectives which are huntin’ for a clue know 
mighty little,” she said hotly. “Now what 
course have any of them ever studied? They 
just happened to be in on the side of the politi- 
cal party which won at the last election, and 
when the city hall jobs gave out they just put 
them on the detective force.” 

Without any doubt Renfro was in a state of 
confusion. He didn’t know whether or not to 
go around to Judge Wier’s house and tell the 
Judge what he had seen on the two successive 


HELEN WIER IS KIDNAPED 61 


nights when he had been carrying his papers 
past their house, or to take his story to the 
police. But he did know enough to keep still 
until he decided what course to follow. 

But he had come to the kitchen to ask a re- 
quest of Mary, “For heaven’s sake, Mary,” he 
begged, “don’t ever let mother know that place 
is on my paper route or it would be goodbye to 
that route and my new turkey customers. You 
won’t, will you?” 

Mary shook her head. ‘ ‘ But are you working 
on some clues, Ren— Hooch?” she asked. 
“Now if you are, I could help you a lot with my 
book learning on detective work.” 

“Oh, I will need you all right.” Renfro laugh- 
ed. “Just you wait, Mary, and keep still a 
little while and then your chance will come.” 

It was hard work for Renfro at the breakfast 
table just to ask enough questions and talk 
enough about the kidnaping to avoid suspicion, 
without telling his parents anything he knew, 
or ask any of the questions in his mind. He 
went directly to the police station from the 
breakfast table. He found the chief of detec- 
tives a very busy man. 


62 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


But still lie managed to take time to see Ren- 
fro and talked a little until Renfro began to tell 
of the man he had seen lurking in the Wier 
neighborhood and then he banged his hand on 
his desk. 4 * You’re the fifth boy who saw some 
suspicious looking person lurking in that neigh- 
borhood,’ J he laughed but there was a note of 
impatience in his laugh. 4 4 I’ve heard of every- 
thing from a colored wash woman to the judge 
himself.” 

After storming about how busy he was and 
how people who bothered busy people should be 
given jail sentences, the chief pointed toward 
the door thru which he intended Renfro to leave. 

4 4 If you kids would read your school books,” 
he said solemnly, 4 4 instead of a lot of detective 
stories written by old maids afraid to go out 
at night, you would have more sense about clues 
and everything else in general.” 

Outside Renfro pursed his lips. 4 4 All right, 
Mr. Chief,” he thought to himself, ‘ 4 1 ’ll work 
on my own clue. I’ve one and I hope your men 
don’t find out a thing without it.” 

He found the entire Grant School aroused by 
the kidnaping. Girls, who had been brought to 
the building by their fathers under orders not to 


HELEN WIEK IS KIDNAPED 63 


leave the building until them came after them, 
stood in groups inside the hall and would not 
have ventured outside the building for a fortune. 
Some of the people seemed to think that Helen 
Wier was the first one to be taken in a kidnap- 
ing plot which was to rob Lindendale of all 
its girls. 

Miss Turpin, the English teacher, allowed the 
members of her classes to discuss the affair. 
AJ1 sorts of reasons, were offered for the kid- 
naping, most of them being that of a ransom. 
But Eenfro kept still. Judge Wier didn’t have 
a fortune nor did he have resources to raise one 
in a hurry. Unlike Mary he didn’t believe that 
a note would come in a few days demanding 
money, telling under what particular forest log 
to hide it and the conditions governing its hid- 
ing. 

Miss Turpin herself ventured a suggestion. 
She too knew that Judge Wier was far from 
being a rich man. Now there was soon to come 
before the judge for trial a number of men 
charged with a series of election frauds. She 
wondered if they could have taken this course 
to frighten Judge Wier from giving them stiff 


64 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


sentences. 

“Well,” Abie Lnbin remembered his fine for 
speeding his father’s car, “Anybody can’t scare 
Judge Wier by nothing.” 

That afternoon the chief of defectives, having 
heard of Miss Turpin’s suggestion telephoned 
the Grant building for her to come to his office 
after school. Renfro, too, received a telephone 
message. It was from Route Manager Mor- 
rison of the Evening Globe. He offered to send 
an extra boy to help Renfro carry his route in 
case he should feel uneasy. 

Now that was the last thing Renfro wanted 
so he laughed at the suggestion and by so doing 
rose several notches in Morrison’s mind. He 
went directly to the Circulation Manager with 
his praise. Mr. Bruce in turn smiled, “I said 
that boy would make good,” he smiled. “Of 
course he won’t make any money on Old Grief, 
but as soon as we’re sure he’s what we think 
he is we’ll give him a regular route. And I 
shall have the pleasure of telling his father that 
he was wrong in his prediction, and I was right 
in mine.” 

Renfro fairly rushed along his route that 


HELEN WIER IS KIDNAPED 65 


afternoon. Still lie searched for new subscrib- 
ers. It would be foolish be knew to go out to 
the big Hall bouse and the little shack adjoin- 
ing it until it was dark. Yet be was going. 

It was very quiet at Judge Wier’s bouse. The 
people who crowded there in the morning bad 
gone home. The bouse was darkened so that 
Mrs. Wier could be kept quiet. 

Renfro rolled bis copy of the Evening Globe, 
started to throw it onto the porch and then stop- 
ped. Why not take it around to the back door? 
That would give him a chance to pass the shrub- 
bery and the window thru which the man had 
peeped on two successive nights. He decided 
to do so. 

The shrubbery was intact. The inside of the 
window was covered with a heavy coat of frost. 
Renfro looked thru it but could see only the 
green blind which had been pulled to the very 
sill. And then he saw something on the outside 
of the pane. 

He stepped close to the window, and looked 
up at the two strange looking things. They 
were about two inches apart, white and stiff 
and made up of—? 


66 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


And then Renfro almost shouted. They were 
part of a pair of a man’s eyebrows. Memory 
of the frozen pipe with his boyish tongue stuck 
against it, and the red skin left fast to the pipe, 
made him understand this situation. The man 
who had stood close to the window pane had 
pressed his face against the cold glass while he 
watched the scene inside the house, his eyebrows 
had been frozen to the pane more firmly than 
he had thought and when he, suddenly frighten- 
ed, had pulled away from it he had left these 
portions of his eyebrows behind him. 

“My first clue” Renfro told himself and 
reached into his pocket. 


CHAPTER VII. 


RENFRO TAKES THE EYEBROWS. 

R ENFRO’S hand trembled so that he 
could hardly pull his knife from his 
trousers pocket. It was followed by a 
notebook, from which he tore two sheets of 
paper. Quickly he opened the blade, the 
thinnest of the three in his knife, warmed it 
with several breaths and then slipped it under 
one of the frozen eyebrows on the window pane. 

Zip! It came off — frozen, intact, as /solid 
as it had been when left on the frozen pane. 
Carefully Renfro wrapped it in one of the 
pieces of paper. By the same process the other 
portion of an eyebrow was likewise treated. 
With both precious packages of what he con- 
sidered a magnificent clue stored safely in his 
most secure inner pocket Renfro shouldered 
his now empty paper bag and started toward 
home. 

The desire to journey out to the big Hall 
house was almost overpowering him. But wis- 
dom warned him against making the trip. It 
was late — it w'ould be eight o’clock before he 


68 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


could get home. If he arrived later than that 
there would surely be a family conclave held, 
the decision of which might mean that tho he 
continued to carry his paper route he would 
be given no time to either get new subscribers 
or to follow the clue which fat& had thrust into 
his hand. 

Renfro was almost stunned with his good 
fortune. In his pocket was the only clue which, 
according to the latest reports he had heard, 
had yet been found. And he was going to keep 
it and work it out himself. The chief of de- 
tectives had laughed once, the next laugh 
would be at his expense, Renfro vowed, and 
because he had discovered a clue to the iden- 
tity of the person or persons who had kid- 
naped Helen Wier. 

All the way home on the car he kept his hand 
pressed over the pocket in which was the clue. 
Off the car, walking down the home avenue he 
watched surreptitiously for a possible bandit. 
No lady of rank ever guarded her jewels any 
more closely than Renfro Horn did the two 
mysterious eyebrows. 

All around him the bitter wind stung and 


RENFRO TAKES EYEBROWS 69 


lashed and hurt like a keen edged knife. It drove 
white hard clouds across the sky and at times 
hid the moon. But still it was a much lighter 
night than the one preceeding it had been. 
Neither Helen Wier nor any other girl could 
be successfully kidnaped on a night like this. 

“But detectives could follow a clue mighty 
well,” Renfro turned in at his own walk, and 
patted his chest, “only right now they haven’t 
any clue.” 

His father who had just come past the po- 
lice headquarters on his way home from the 
office, gave testimony that his conclusion was 
right. The clue suggested by Miss Turpin 
about the men implicated in the election frauds 
was being traced down but no one hoped for 
any results. 

While they were at dinner Mrs. Horn who 
had been doubly uneasy over Renfro’s late- 
ness and also his father’s, voiced her com- 
plaints in fretful language. Mr. Horn, pro- 
voked as always by his wife’s fussing moods 
issued sharp orders to Renfro, “No trips out 
at night onto that route,” he said, “and here- 
after you be home at six thirty. Do you under- 


70 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


stand?” 

Renfro nodded, and reacliing into his pocket 
pulled out the rules Morrison had given him 
the first day. “Dad,” he said soberly, “Every 
business has its own rules, and the Globe’s car- 
rier system has its own. You expect your em- 
ployees to follow yours if they expect to rise 
in your business. If I’m to rise to success with 
the Globe I’ll have to follow these.” 

His mother’s eyes were distinctly hostile but 
Renfro looked away from them straight into his 
father’s interested ones, then back to his paper 
and read his rules in a clear, determined boy- 
ish voice — 

“Never fail to deliver a subscriber. 

“A good carrier will get two new subcribers 
and increase his route two each week. 

“Bills must be paid when due. Only lame 
ducks pay part of their bills.” 

Mrs. Horn sniffed scornfully, caught a gleam 
of authority in her husband’s eyes, rose with a 
rather indifferent apology and strolled into the 
library. At a nod from his father Renfro read 
on — 

“Collect your route thoroughly once a week. 


RENFRO TAKES EYEBROWS 71 


The meanest man in the world is the man who 
would heat a newspaper carrier. 

‘ * Tell your customers you come thru the snow 
and rain and cold six times a week to their 
door, for their accommodaiton, and ask them if 
they can’t arrange once a week to have your 
money for you. 

“Get your delivery thru as quickly as pos- 
sible. The mothers want to read the Globe 
before the fathers come home for supper. 

“And remember the quitters fail while the 
boys who respond to responsibility always suc- 
ceed as boys and as men.” 

When he finished his reading Renfro care- 
fully folded the paper and put it back into his 
pocket. He heard his father cough, looked up, 
caught his wink and rather low declaration, “I 
recall my command. These rules are about the 
best things I ever heard. Obey them — that’s 
all.” 

Renfro ventured audible thanks. But he cau- 
tiously remained in the dining room when his 
father left for the library. He knew that his 
father would have it out with his mother and 
that it would be much better if he were not a 


72 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


listener to their argument. Besides he 
wanted to see Mary. 

With his hands in his pockets he strolled 
into the kitchen, watched Mary stir something 
into a batter and then carelessly asked, “Did 
you see Captain Pete today, Mary?” 

To his surprise Mary nodded, “You did, 
Mary,” he ejaculated, “How did he look?” 

“Cross — fierce like to be sure,” Mary re- 
turned. “I didn’t buy none of his rabbits. 
They weren’t fresh like. And he had the nerve 
to argue with me that frozen rabbits is alius 
good even if they wuz froze the week before 
last.” 

A straight look at Mary, and a little delay 
on Renfro’s part. Then he smiled scornfully 
at himself. Experience had taught him that no 
one could be trusted better than Mary. Slowly 
he pulled the two pieces of paper out of his 
pocket, laid them on the table, unfolded them 
so as not to disturb the arrangement of their 
contents and called Mary. 

In a low, guarded tone he told Mary of the 
man who had crouched at Judge Wier’s win- 
dow, of his trying to follow him and of the 


RENFBO TAKES EYEBROWS 73 


finding of the eyebrows. “They’re my clue, 
Mary,” he ended proudly, “You’re going to 
help me find the man who has these missing eye- 
brows and who kidnaped or who helped kid- 
nap Helen W T ier — aren’t you?” And he 
breathed deeply. “Without the help or know- 
ledge of any member of the detective force.” 

“Yes, yes,” Mary whispered, her sibilant 
tones high with excitement. “I’ll help you and 
just us two will do it. I know how to follow 
that clue. Them detective lessons will come in 
handy now. I was just beginning to think 
that mebbe I had wasted my money but now 
I know and — ” 

“Mary,” Renfro’s hand clasped over her 
arm, “Did you notice this afternoon? Were 
Captain Pete’s eyebrows — ” 

“Why I couldn’t see them,” she whispered 
back. “He had a long scarf over his head and 
Hooch, it came clean down to his very eyes. 
You don’t think it was him — do you, Hooch?” 

Renfro shook his head. “But we’re going 
to watch everybody who is old and who might 
be a criminal or a maniac or who could have had 
some reason for kidnaping Helen Wier. In 


74 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


other words we’ve got to find the man with the 
missing eyebrows/ ’ 

Mary nodded vigorously. 

“And, Mary,” Renfro was folding the paper 
again, “We’ve got to be very careful of these 
same missing eyebrows which are our only defi- 
nite clue. I’ll hide them away carefully.” 

His mother called him just then to hunt her 
a book he had been reading a few days before. 
She was still decidedly cool in her treatment 
toward him. But Renfro was more courteous 
than usual and before he left the room to go to 
bed, she was quite motherly to him. 

In bed Renfro reviewed the day’s happen- 
ings and tried to map out a plan for the rest of 
the week. He must do his route work first. 
That was his job. Then when each day’s work 
was over he could follow the clue. If only the 
dectives failed to find Helen Wier he was sure 
he could. 

“And I must get my new subscribers,” he 
was ready to close his eyes. 4 4 The paper 
says two new subscribers a week, but my record 
must be five a day for a time if I get those tur- 
keys. And I must have them. I’ve promised 


RENFRO TAKES EYEBROWS 75 


Mar y.” 

Before he left for school the next morning 
he slipped into the kitchen and bantered with 
Mary a minnte or two. “I’ve earned two of 
your turkeys, Mary,” he told her, “So be find- 
ing ^out ways to dress and cook them.” 

Then he explained to her the system he was 
following in order to win them. At the back 
door he gave her a last word of advice. 
“Mary, if Captain Pete or any mean looking 
stranger comes to our door, look at his eye- 
brows if you have to sit on him to do it,” he 
smiled. 

“All right, Hooch,” Mary promised in re- 
turn. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


RENFRO GETS A SHOCK. 

N OT until he was in Miss Turpin’s 
class did Renfro have an opportunity 
to hear anything about the kidnaping 
of Helen Wier, otherwise than that which had 
been in the morning newspaper. And in them 
had been the statement that all clues offered by 
members of the detective force and members of 
the Wier family had been followed down and led 
to nothing. 

But in Miss Turpin’s class a late comer to 
school brought more news. Judge Wier had 
received a letter that morning in the first mail. 
It was just a note written by Helen herself, in 
her girlish scrawl. She was well she said and 
comfortable. That was all. 

But the note had been mailed in a city mail 
box directly across the street from where Judge 
Wier lived. That gave the detectives a new 
clue. They were — 

And then Renfro remembered his clue — the 
missing eyebrows. With great deliberation 
last night he had chosen his hiding place — be- 


RENFRO GETS A SHOCK 


77 


tween the case and the pillow itself. Bnt his 
father had called him late and he had forgotten 
all about his valuable possessions. 

At the close of the recitations he went to the 
dean, obtained permission to use her private 
phone and slipped alone into her inner office. 
He talked in a very low tone. First he called 
his home number. And then he almost shouted 
over his own good fortune. Mary had an- 
swered the call. 

“Don’t talk, Mary,” he cautioned, “don’t 
say anything which would give me away. It’s 
Hooch. Has anybody made up my bed yet?” 

Mary herself had — just a little while before. 

“Then you didn’t bother them — my clues,” 
he almost implored. “You know what I mean 
Mary — those eye — eye — you know.” 

Mary knew. 

Then Renfro told her where he had put them. 
No, Mary hadn’t seen them, but if he would 
wait she would run up stairs and see if she 
could find them. A long wait followed during 
which Renfro counted several hundred digits 
to make the time hurry and then he heard 
Mary’s voice once more. 


78 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


It was terrible — full of tears, of fear and of 
grief. They were gone— Renfro's leading 
clues. She had shook his pillows, quite as was 
her usual custom, had swept his floor and then 
and — " 

The rest of her speech was lost. Renfro had 
dashed the receiver back onto the hook, slipped 
as fast as he could to his cloak room, donned his 
cap and gloves and was down at the principal's 
office. His white face, his dark staring horror 
stricken eyes gave proof to his statement that 
he was sick and he was excused for the rest of 
the morning. 

Darting across streets in front of automo- 
biles, down alleys thru which he had not been 
in months, panting, puffing, and never stopping, 
Renfro rushed into his own back gate, up the 
walk and into the kitchen where Mary was 
weeping copiously. A few questions from him, 
a few answers from her and they were both 
down in the basement, right into the furnace 
room. 

No, Mary didn't remember where she had 
emptied the sweeper that morning. She usually 
did but this morning she had been busy think- 


RENFRO GETS A SHOCK 


79 


in g out excuses she could find for going out to 
Captain Pete’s and discovering the condition 
of the old hunter’s eyebrows. She sobbed aud- 
ibly while she talked. Mrs. Horn had gone up 
town to a sale she informed Renfro and she 
could cry loud and get all the comfort she 
wanted out of so doing. 

Together they searched thru the trash pile, 
then all over the basement floor, and all the 
way up and down the dark stairway. And then 
Mary remembered the garden plot. The ash 
man had asked her to empty her sweepings on 
the ash pile. He often found pins and needles 
and interesting knick knacks for his little girl 
in people’s ash piles. 

And out there Renfro found one folded piece 
of paper and Mary the other. They flew into 
each others arms. Back in the kitchen Mary 
found her family Bible and made room in it 
for Renfro to place the precious possessions 
along with the bit of her baby hair and one 
bridesmaid’s dress and her long ago admirer’s 
picture. Mary informed him that she was going 
to buy some black paper, some white paint and 
make a reproduction of the eyebrows for their 


80 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


everyday use in hunting down clues. 

“The detective book said to make copies of 
everything you find in regard to a crime,” she 
offered the proof of the wisdom of her sugges- 
tion. 

“Well you guard your Bible, Mary dear, and 
wait a little while,” Hooch begged her, now 
restored to health again and ready to return 
to school. 

It was Jimmie Noel who at noon suggested 
to Renfro that he go see his route manager 
for suggestions about securing his new sub- 
scribers. “He’s an old hand,” he advised, 
“and he can give you pointers which will save 
you half of your energy.” 

Renfro hesitated. That might mean a loss 
of time and he had determined to go out to 
both Captain Pete’s and the big house that 
night. Still “The Globe” was his business and 
a fellow’s own business came first. Besides his 
father had given him permission to stay out 
late. 

Renfro found Morrison rushing and fuming. 
Warren, route manager of the north side, had 
boasted that, his boys were going to win 


RENFRO GETS A SHOCK 


81 


the most turkeys. “I can’t have that,” Morri- 
son was urging two of his best carriers whom 
he had summoned in to act in an emergency. 
4 4 Fellows, this is just like a big basket ball 
game. Are you going to let your enemy’s team 
beat you without a struggle?” 

Then he saw Renfro, 4 4 Hello, Hooch Horn,” 
he said genially, 4 4 How can I help you, old 
man?” 

Renfro ’s list of twenty new subscribers went 
onto the counter in front of Morrison. 4 4 Two 
turkeys won already, ’ ’ he smiled. 4 4 And I 
thought perhaps you could give me some sug- 
gestions on how to win four more.” 

A smile spread over Morrison’s face and 
then it stopped suddenly as he examined the 
list of names. 4 4 Ward’s no good,” he ejacu- 
lated. 4 4 Didn’t Andy tell you? He beat him 
out of a bill. And Newkirk did the same and 
that Patterson woman — ” 

4 4 But they all paid in advance,” Renfro in- 
terrupted. 

Morrison stared at him. 4 4 They did!” he half 
shouted and drew his hand across his forehead. 
4 4 They did! Well how in the thunder did you 


82 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


get money out of them before they got the 
paper? Boy, you must have a wonderful line 
of talk.” 

Arm in arm he and Renfro walked to the 
door. ‘ ‘Go to it, Hooch,” was Morrison’s last 
advice, “win these turkeys and I’ll put up the 
best feed in any hotel you choose. The south 
side always does take the prizes. But for Old 
Grief to win first honors, Hooch, that would be 
the surprise of the Globe during the sixty years 
it has been a paper.” 

“Say,” he called Renfro back, “Bruce said 
you had guts, when he hired you.” 

Renfro remembered that statement of 
Bruce’s as he worked against great obstacles 
for subscribers that afternoon. But he stuck, 
tho there seemed nothing but obstacles in front 
of him and finally counted out his five new 
names. “Turkey number three,” he laughed 
and pulled out his watch. 

Seven-thirty o’clock and a heavy darkness 
everywhere. The street lights were dim tonight 
and there was almost no one out on East Wash- 
ington. Judge Wier’s house had been guarded 
by a detective, not because of the discovery of 


RENFRO GETS A SHOCK 


83 


a new clue but Mrs. Wier’s nerves from the 
morning’s note had demanded one. 

At the little corner grocery Renfro bought 
a hot dog sandwich and some weak tea and ate 
and drank standing close to the door. No one 
passed except a colored woman carrying home 
her “wash.” Out on the street he hurried down 
toward the big house and the shack beyond. 

He stumbled thru the underbrush at the side 
of the road, over the rail fence and into the 
lane between the two orchards. A dark form 
loomed before him. He held his breath and 
stood still. A low sniff came to him, a joyous 
bark and Lang Tammy was against him, his 
big shaggy body almost overturning Renfro. 
He grabbed one end of the bag and the usual 
game of pulling followed. 

“Like to play, old fellow?” Renfro patted 
his head. “Next time, old boy, I’ll bring you 
a hot dog if I have to go without one myself.” 

While he talked to the dog he caught a glim- 
mer of light in the big house, up on the second 
floor at the right side in the dormer window 
where there were still shutters. It didn’t linger 
there long and when it went out the whole house 


84 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


was left in darkness. Nor was it lighted again. 

Renfro turned his back on the big house and 
stumbled across the field toward the shack. The 
orchard was desolate and rocky with a few rem- 
nants of trees which never bore but in the dark- 
ness they were formidable looking and their 
roots stumbling blocks. 

After the orchard came the lane again and 
then the open space around the shack. A gleam 
of light from the window told Renfro that Cap- 
tain Pete was at home. Before he crossed to 
the door Renfro ordered Lang Tammy “to 
go home ’ ’ and after a little the big dog slouched 
away. 

“He’s been taught to mind all right,” Renfro 
watched the big creature now an abject object 
of fear, slinking down the lane, “and he’s been 
taught thru terrible cruelty.” 

Captain Pete answered the knock. His shaggy 
head was uncovered and he knitted his heavy 
white eyebrows all of which were intact. No, 
he did not have any rabbits. The Elks had 
come out that afternoon and gotten all he had 
for a big supper they were having. But he 
would have some the next day for Renfro. 


RENFRO GETS A SHOCK 


85 


Then Renfro grew a bit bold. 4 ‘Sometimes, 
Captain Pete,” he said quietly, “I know yonr 
old house is haunted or something, for I’ve 
seen lights in it. Now tonight — ” 

Captain Pete’s head shook a. vigorous de- 
nial. “There wasn’t anybody there,” he said. 
Why it was so full of wide open cracks that 
nobody couldn’t stay there. And most of the 
tin roof was off by this time. 

“Captain Pete may be innocent,” Renfro 
drawled, back on the road again, “but he’s sure 
not ignorant.” 


CHAPTER IX. 


TRACKS AT THE CABIN. 

A T the corner of Washington Avenue and 
Twenty-fifth street Renfro waited for a 
car. He shuffled his feet to keep them 
warm and rolled and unrolled his paper bag 
while he watched the next corner for the first 
glimpse of a headlight. The street light quiver- 
ed and went out, came on again and once more 
began to grow dim. 

When out of Plum Street sprang a boy in uni- 
form who rushed into the middle of the street, 
caught at the long wire hanging from the flick- 
ering light, gave it several jerks and was re- 
warded by the strong white light which re- 
placed the flickering one. 

In its light Renfro recognized Jimmie Noel, 
dressed for a hike, his provision bag swung 
over his shoulder, a stout stick in one hand 
and a bulky bundle in the other. He gave a 
shrill whistle. The one which came in return 
told that he was recognized. 

The two boys met near the middle of the 
block. But before they exchanged spoken 
greetings Renfro saw the squad of khaki clad 


TRACKS AT THE CABIN 


87 


boys who were following Jimmie more than 
a half square away. They halted under the 
street light to view the accomplishment of 
Jimmie. Two of them in turn shook the same 
wire he had. The street light grew even 
brighter. 

‘ ‘ Bill Larrison’s patrol,— the Black Bears/ ’ 
Jimmie nodded at the boys behind him. 
“They’re going out to Twin Cedar Cabin for 
the night. Some of them are getting ready 
for their second class tests. Pete Northrup’s 
going to cook.” 

Renfro’s laugh was eloquent. Pete was the 
most awkward boy he knew. Visions of Pete 
in a kitchen were too much for him. 

“Gee, I’d like to see him,” he began. 

“Come along then,” Jimmie invited. “I’m 
a sort of a visitor myself. Going to give some 
of the tests for Bill. It’ll be exciting too, I tell 
you. Queer things happening out at the camp 
recently, according to what the scouts tell, who 
have gone out there on over night hikes. 
It’ll-” 

But the presence of the eight other scouts, 
who had caught up with them, put an end to 


88 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


Jimmie’s flow of confidence. Instead he turned 
to the boy who seemed to be leader of the expe- 
dition. 4 4 Bill,” he began, "this is Hooch Horn 
—a pal of mine. I’d like for him to go along.” 

"Sure!” Bill was inclined to want all the 
company he could get. He had heard much 
more about the queer happenings out at the 
camp than had Jimmie. Another recruit to his 
crowd would strengthen its fighting powers 
should they be called into use. 

Renfro hesitated. Under ordinary circum- 
stances he could have explained the situation 
to his father so that he would have been will- 
ing for him to go. But his mother’s mood, due 
to his carrying the Washington Globe route, 
made him uneasy about his ability to do so 
now. However, Jimmie, the quick witted, came 
to the rescue. 

4 4 Let Ted Bright explain things to your 
father,” he began. 4 4 He often does that for 
me when I want to get out. He’s just like his 
dad— can talk folks into doing anything he 
wants them to do.” 

Renfro grinned. 4 4 All right,” he agreed, re- 
membering his father’s opinion of the elder 


TRACKS AT THE CABIN 


89 


Bright and how anxious he now was to stand 
in that man’s good graces. “ Dad’s still home 
I’m sure. He can call him up from the corner 
grocery. ’ ’ 

While Ted was gone the boys told Renfro 
about the overnight hike they had made the week 
before. The one before them tonight was a 
short one,— out East Washington to the second 
road leading down to the river road. Just be- 
yond the land owned by Captain Pete Hall was 
that which the city scouts had bought for a 
permanent camp site. 

“You know the old cabin out there,” Ward 
Lane was the speaker now,” the one with the 
two big cedar trees in front of it— just above 
the spring where the Indian chiefs fought,” 
he talked rapidly, “we fellows went out a few 
weeks ago and repaired it so we could use 
it for overnight hikes. Now two patrols have 
used it but neither one of them will go out 
again. They saw—” 

“Oh, Hooch,” Ted’s voice several yards 
away, was happy, “It’s all right. I had to talk 
like sixty tho. And I didn’t tell them we are 
going to stay all night in the cabin.” He had 


90 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


reached the group now and was laughing, “I 
think your mother believes we’re going to stay 
all night in some sort of a hotel or other/ ’ 

“No doubt/ ’ Jimmie laughed too. “With 
your explanations, Ted, and your blarney, she 
might think anything.” 

The patrol fell into regular order and took 
up its march. Jimmie and Renfro followed the 
others. Back over the last part of Renfro’s 
paper route they journeyed. Near Judge Wier’s 
house Jimmie remembered the kidnaping and 
wanted to talk about it. Renfro listened, an- 
swering the questions Jimmie asked but taking 
great care not to show unusual interest suf- 
ficient to arouse Jimmie’s suspicions. 

However, the lack of evident interest on the 
subject on Renfro’s part disgusted Jimmie. 
And soon he began to talk about other subjects. 
The deserted house on the Hall place, tall and 
dark and ghostly, reminded him of Captain 
Pete’s skill as a hunter. Jimmie had gone with 
the old hunter, whose boast was that he never 
shot his rabbits thru the body “ef they had 
the least part of a head.” 

The patrol slowed its pace and fell back to 


TRACKS AT THE CABIN 


91 


Jimmie and Renfro. They were soon singing 
some lusty marching songs which put an end 
to the conversation between the two boys. And 
Renfro was glad that it did. He wanted to 
watch the landmarks along the road they were 
taking. 

Just beyond the cabin they turned into a 
road leading to the river. Six years before it 
had been kept in good repair for the people 
who journeyed down to the fishing camp which 
was its terminus. But the camp had been 
moved, the road was little used and had been 
allowed to fall into a bad state. 

Renfro stumbled over huge boulders in one 
place; in another he went shoe top deep into 
a rut of snow. The scouts were having like 
difficulties. Bill Larrison dropped his provi- 
sions and had quite a scramble in getting them 
back into his bag again. 

At the foot of the bluffs they climbed a fence, 
made of rails and wire, crossed a field, hurried 
down a lane at the end of which loomed two 
tall cedar trees. The dark blur back of them 
Renfro knew was the cabin. Visions of a roar- 
ing fire in the big fire place the scouts had 


92 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


told about building, began to cheer him when 
the patrol stopped. 

“They’re going to pay their respects to 
Chief Wampum and Big Eagle/ * Jimmie gave 
the information. 

He pushed Renfro close to a structure built 
after the fashion of a pig pen. “The fellow 
built it around the graves so that the cattle 
and horses couldn’t harm them,” Jimmie con- 
tinued. “They’re real Indian chiefs. Tell you 
about them tonight. The scouts who come out 
here always have to pay their respects to 
them. ’ ’ 

A long wailing sound came from one of the 
boys, followed by Bill’s heavy, gutteral, “Oh, 
chief, have you anything to say to your braves 
tonight?” 

Absolute silence answered his question. A 
few minutes’ wait and Bill ordered his patrol 
to march on to the cabin. The march was unin- 
terrupted except for a large dog which moved 
near the boys. One of them started to drive it 
away but Renfro intercepted him. “It’s a dog 
I know,” he said, and called softy, “Lang 
Tammie. ’ ’ 


TRACKS AT THE CABIN 


93 


One minute the dog stopped, hesitated, 
sniffed, turned and ran back up the hill. Ren- 
fro watched him out of sight. Then he went 
on to the cabin, into which most of the boys 
had already gone. 

Two coal oil wall lamps had been lighted 
when Renfro entered the room. From their 
light he saw that the partitions had been re- 
moved and the cabin thrown into one big room, 
a mammoth fireplace was in the center of the 
north wall. Bunks had been built along the 
south one. 

Several times during the last two years when 
Renfro had gone on hikes he had stopped at 
Twin Cedar Cabins to get a drink from the 
spring, its water was noted as being the cold- 
est and clearest in the vicinity. 

Too, Renfro had been interested in the land- 
marks around the site. He had heard, years 
before, the history of the spot and had seen the 
old woman about whom they told the wierd 
story which had made the site famous. When 
she had been but fifteen years old two Indian 
chiefs had seen her, both had wanted her for 
his squaw and they had fought a duel at the 


94 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


spring, where both had been wounded. 

Their braves had carried them away. Years 
afterward they had returned and paid respects 
to the white girl for whom they had fought. 
She was an old woman then, but had enjoyed 
the visit and recounted it ever afterwards with 
much pleasure. 

“And when they were dead,” Jimmie, as if 
reading Renfro ’s thought, suddenly said, ‘ ‘ their 
braves brought them back and burried them 
near the spring. Those were the graves you 
passed tonight.” 

Renfro was inclined to be incredulous. ‘ ‘ Queer 
I never heard about those graves before,” he 
said. 

“Yes, it is queer,” Jimmie grinned. 

Bill was grumbling over near the fireplace. 
“Somebody’s been at the provisions again,” he 
said. “The soap’s all gone. Why,” he shook 
an empty bucket, “so’s the lard — ” farther in- 
vestigation— “ and the eggs you brought out 
yesterday, Hank, and — ” he looked at some 
prints on the floor — “whoever it was had a 
dog.” 

Big prints on the floor made him decide it 


TRACKS AT THE CABIN 


95 


was a large dog. Except for grumbling over the 
loss of the provisions, the other scouts paid little 
attention to the prints, but to Renfro they held 
intense interest. While they built a roaring fire 
in the fireplace he took his flashlight to add to 
the light furnished by the coal oil lamps and ex- 
amined the prints closely. 

Yes, they had evidently been made by an aire- 
dale dog. But close to them were the muddy 
prints of a large shoe, the sort worn by a man 
who was accustomed to hunting. Smaller tracks 
were confusing. They might have been made by 
a small scout, but still they were narrow enough 
to have been made by a girl ’s sport oxford. 

Renfro put some newspapers over one and on 
top of them put his paper bag and mackinaw. 
The other boys had piled their mackinaws and 
provision kits on the floor. In his heart was 
one hope — namely that they would not remove 
his things. He had laid them down so carefully 
that he was sure the footprints would remain 
intact and he could study them more closely in 
the morning. 

Yes, it was possible. Helen Wier’s kidnapers 
might have brought her to this cabin the night 


96 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


they took her. They might have kept her there 
until morning and then gone on down the river, 
they might — 

“Out with the lights.’ ’ Bill Larrison’s voice 
became a low growl. “Out with your lights, fel- 
lows and in a body move to the window. ’ ’ 


CHAPTER X. 


THE LIGHT ON THE INDIAN GRAVES. 

R ENFRO grasped one of the wall lamps, 
lifted it from its socket and with all the 
power of his lungs blew down the chim- 
ney. The blaze was instantly extinguished and 
left a smoking wick. At the same moment Scout 
Brown had extinguished the other. Outside 
there sounded faint footsteps. But when the 
boys reached the window no one was outside. 
The door was opened, the scouts circled the 
cabin, and even journeyed to the spring but no 
one was there. 

“Bill’s excited,” Jimmie confided to Renfro, 
“He’s watching for the lights at the grave.” 
“What!” Renfro was amazed. 

4 ‘ Oh, last summer when we were out here, one 
of the scoutmasters, who knew all the old men 
and women around here, told the boys that once 
every ten years the two chiefs would come back 
to again fight by the spring. And they believed 
it. The other two troops which were out here 
said that at midnight queer lights played 
around the graves and word had gone out that 


98 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


this is nearing the time for the two braves to 
appear. ’ ’ 

Renfro laughed and moved close to the fire. 
“Of course he smiled, “you don’t believe it.” 

Jimmie in turn asked a question. “You 
heard those steps — didn’t you!” 

Renfro nodded and smiled. “But you did- 
n’t see anything nor anyone,” Jimmie contin- 
ued. 

Another nod from Renfro. “And Hooch,” 
Jimmie moved closer to him. “You saw those 
footprints.” 

This time he excited Renfro’s interest. He 
was intensely concerned in those footprints. He 
could hardly wait for morning to come to give 
him an opportunity to study them. He felt that 
an answer was due Jimmie, “Yes, I saw them,” 
he said, “And they are sure big ones.” 

“Now I tell you — ” 

But Jimmie didn’t get to tell Renfro anything 
more. The patrol was back in the room. 
Some of the boys had made weather observa- 
tions while out of the cabin and they were anx- 
ious to mark them on their charts. A discus- 
sion on cooking meat followed their work and 


LIGHT ON THE INDIAN GRAVES 99 


then the ceremonials for the evening began. 

They had just gotten to the most interesting 
part when Jimmie announced that it was bed- 
time. One of the rules of the cabin committee, 
in order to keep a strong friendship with the 
parents of the scouts, required the hikers to go 
to bed at a certain hour. And like good scouts 
they observed that rule. 

The boys rolled up in blankets on the 
bunks. Several of them whispered. Jack Burton 
next to Renfro, insisted upon telling both Jim- 
mie and Renfro of how his high school brother 
got angry every time he came out to the cabin. 
The fraternity to which he belonged had wanted 
to buy the cabin; but the scouts had offered a 
larger sum for it than did the fraternity. “We 
beat them to it,” the little fellow finished, “and 
every boy in that frat hates me ’cause I told the 
committee they was wantin’ it and — ” 

He trailed on and on but Jimmie’s snores 
told that he was asleep and Renfro’s mind was 
bent on other things. He saw again Captain 
Pete— the big cabin— the dog— Lang Tammie, 
and then the many foot prints on Twin Cedars’ 
floor. In the morning — 


100 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


But in the morning he didn’t make his investi- 
gation. For hardly had Renfro gotten to sleep 
when he was awakened by a low warning voice. 
Sibilant whispers went from one bunk to the 
other. 4 ‘The light, the light!” they whispered. 
“It’s on the graves now.” 

Renfro raised on his elbow and saw that he 
was directly in range of the window and of the 
enclosure on the graves. And the boys were 
right. A wierd unearthly blue light was play* 
ing over some of the boards of the fence and 
over the two mounds inside the enclosure. 

With quick breaths the boys watched it. 
Jimmie and Renfro went to the window. For 
several minutes the lights, alternating from 
purple to blue played along the graves and then 
suddenly they went out. 

“I’m in favor of investigating them,” Renfro 
began, turned away from the window, struck 
the bench with his foot and fell headlong to the 
floor. Something on which he landed slipped, he 
felt a soft wooly, mass and realized with a start 
that he had fallen on his own coat. 

“And on the foot prints,” he thought with a 
start. 


LIGHT ON THE INDIAN GRAVES 101 


“Light the lamp, Jim,” he called. “I want 
to see what I’ve done.” 

“Hurt?” Jimmie Noel’s voice was fall of 
hope. A chance for first aid was not to be de- 
spised. 

He carried the lamp to where Renfro lay. The 
other boys followed him. And with a sinking 
heart Renfro feared that if he had not destroyed 
the contour of the footprints the boys had. 

Slowly and carefully he raised himself from 
the floor. He lifted the coat, his paper bag and 
then the paper. Below, it was just an indistin- 
guishable lot of soil which had once been mud 
brought in on shoes — the shape of which Renfro 
would have given a small fortune to have been 
able to have told. 

But now he knew that it was impossible. 

# * * # 

The next morning Jimmie, Bill and Renfro 
made a trip to the two graves while the other 
boys cooked breakfast in camp style. There 
were no marks around the grave, no sign of 
destruction nor any kind of invasion. Jimmie 
crawled over both mounds feeling his way care- 
fully. 


102 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


“It’s mighty queer/ ’ was the only remark he 
made when his investigation was finished. 

And Renfro and Bill nodded. 

Back in the cabin the other boys were discuss- 
ing the same happening. Before they left the 
cabin they made a vow to tell none of their ex- 
periences to the rest of the scouts but to have 
weekly overnight hikes out to the cabin. “In- 
vestigation hikes / 1 Bill dubbed them. 

On the way back to town the boys overtook a 
solitary driver in a low spring wagon. It was 
Captain Pete^ and he gave them a genial invita- 
tion to ride back with him. “Good hunting 
weather/ ’ he told them and laughed, “but I 
don’t notice you fellows brought in anything.” 

“We were making a hike,” Bill answered for 
the crowd. “We camped out at Twin Cedar 
cabin last night.” 

Captain Pete chuckled. “Where did you git 
them Indian mounds?” he insisted. 

The boys looked at Jimmie but that worthy 
did not even offer to answer. Instead he changed 
the conversation back to rabbit hunting and 
got Captain Pete into a monologue again. While 
he talked, Renfro studied him — his face across 


LIGHT ON THE INDIAN GRAVES 103 


which there were long scratches and his shifting 
eyes. Sometimes they were as gentle as a wom- 
an’s and again when he was angry they were 
cruel. 

As the boys clambered out of the wagon, he 
gave a shrewd chuckle, 4 4 Didn’t see anything 
queer out there last night — did you?” he asked. 
4 4 Some of the scouts did last week, ‘cordin’ to 
what one of their mothers told me. Didn’t see 
nothin ’ — you fellows — did you ? ’ ’ 

And they disdained to even answer. 

From the little restaurant where he went to 
supplement his camp breakfast, Renfro tele- 
phoned home before he went on to school. His 
father answered the telephone and he was in a 
very agreeable mood. He asked Renfro if he 
had enjoyed his trip and then gave him a tele- 
phone number which had been left for him the 
night before. 

Renfro recognized the number as that of 
Morrison’s telephone. The clock on the res- 
taurant wall told him that he had time to go 
past the office on his way to school. Better 
talk face to face with Morrison than over the 
telephone, he decided. 


104 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


The morning paper on the table had big head- 
lines about the Wier kidnaping. The story it 
contained was almost a repetition of the one the 
Globe had had the evening before. No new clues 
had been discovered, according to the detectives. 
He also admitted that if any were uncovered 
they would be kept secret. 

Then followed detailed interviews from all of 
the Wier servants, none of whom could or would 
add a bit of information to the stories already 
told. Renfro read them thoroughly. And while 
he ate his buck-wheat cakes, he wondered 
whether or not the cabin at Twin Cedars had 
harbored any of the kidnapers. 

The lights outside the cabin had interested but 
not disturbed him. Now he was inclined to give 
them more attention. Of course, it was ridicu- 
lous to think that they were made by returning 
spirits, as some of the younger scouts seemed to 
think. But still thy did not just happen to come 
to the grave. 

Back of their coming was some weird purpose, 
Renfro was sure. “I’ll keep them in mind the 
next time I go out that way,” he decided. 
4 ‘Jim’s so interested in them that he’ll ask me 


LIGHT ON THE INDIAN GRAVES 105 


to go with him again I ’m sure. They may — ” 

With a rush of cold air the front door opened 
and Jimmie Noel entered the room. He had 
stopped at the office to see if his brother had 
carried his route on time. “No complaints, ’ ’ he 
said cheerfully to Renfro. ‘ ‘ Going past home ? ’ ’ 

Renfro shook his head. “Have to see Morri- 
son, 1 1 he returned. 

“I’m not going that way,” Jimmie warmed 
his hands at the radiator. ‘ ‘ Have to go by home. 
But I want you to go back to the cabin soon, 
Hooch, with me. There’s something back of 
those lights — something mysterious. You’re a 
bear at working out mysteries. And for the good 
of Twin Cedar camp I want that one solved. If 
something isn’t found out to prove those lights 
aren’t ghostly things, that camp will be about as 
popular as a water snaked swimming hole for 
the scouts. You’ll go with me — won’t you, 
Hooch?” 

“You bet!” Renfro smiled. He was surely 
glad Jimmie had not connected the cabin with 
the kidnaping. He didn ’t want to share honors 
with Jimmie even in working out his kidnaping, 
clues. And besides he wasn ’t sure that the Twin 


106 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


Cedar cabin held any part in tbe episode. Yet 
he wished he had not fallen and himself destroy- 
ed the footprints. 


CHAPTER XI. 


RENFRO BECOMES A MENTOR. 

M ORRISON was at his desk. He jerked 
out a surly answer to Renfro’s pleasant, 
4 ‘Good morning. ,, 

In the same mood he turned in his chair and 
saw Renfro. The frown by some mysterious 
manner was jerked into a smile. ‘ ‘ Hello Horn, ’ ’ 
he beamed. “Got my message — didn’t you?” 
In rapid jerks he continued, “Needn’t have 
bothered to come in. Could have told you over 
the wire. Want you to take a pupil on Old 
Grief.” 

A look of dismay on Renfro’s face answered 
him. “Oh, no — haven’t the least idea of taking 
it away from you, ’ ’ he hastened to reassure Ren- 
fro. “I want you to take Merl Riker out there 
with you this afternoon and teach him how you 
get new customers.” 

He pointed to a chair and Renfro dropped 
into it. But there was no break in Morrison’s 
conversation. ‘ ‘ Good kid, but lacks pep — 
Mother’s a widow — needs the money — gave him 
one of our best routes. He’s good to collect, 


108 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


cause the people are all good pay. He doesn’t 
lose a customer. Doesn’t get any new ones 
either. Just keeps the route the way it is. And 
he’s got the best route for new customers in 
town — all except Old Grief,” he winked. “Now 
the Biker family will need a Christmas turkey 
and the Globe needs new customers out there. 
See?” 

“Yes sir,” Renfro got in an answer this time. 

“I’ll send a sub out in Merl’s place this after- 
noon and you take him with you,” Morrison con- 
tinued. “Keep stiil about it. Don’t want to 
make a precedent out of this — unusual case — 
feel sorry for the family. All the kids needs is 
some pep. Inspire it. Get me, Horn?” 

Renfro nodded. “I’ll do my best,” he prom- 
ised. 

And he kept his word. When he reached the 
station that night, a slender boy with a face 
which was molded along feminine lines, and 
whose clothes were well worn met him. Renfro 
studied him a minute before he began talking. 
As he studied he decided that like Morrison, he 
was going to like this boy. He lacked enter- 
prise. But Renfro believed that this was on ac- 


RENFRO BECOMES A MENTOR 109 


count of shyness due to his poverty. 

For when the boy lifted his eye lashes there 
was a quality of steel in his gray eyes. His 
mouth too had a firmness at the corners that 
promised much. He walked along the street in 
quick long steps, which matched those taken by 
Renfro and he was ever in an alert, ready to 
listen attitude. 

“ We’ll try some new customers first/ ’ Renfro 
volunteered. * ‘ Then you can help me throw my 
papers and if we have time we’ll get a few 
more.” 

“All right/ ’ the steel quality was also in the 
boy’s voice. 

Renfro consulted his book, found a number 
three doors away and led the way to a little L 
shaped cottage. A big, burly man came to the 
door. 1 * Do you read the Globe f ’ ’ Renfro began 
in a pleasant way. 

The man started to shut the door with a 
gruff, “No,” when Renfro’s foot slipped just 
inside enough to prevent that. “I am the new 
carrier on this route,” he began. “I have 
taken it for several years’ service, so I wanted 
all the people to know me.” 


110 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


The man stared at him more kindly and open- 
ed the door a bit farther himself. “I don’t like 
the Globe,” he said, the surliness still in his 
voice. 1 ‘ It comes too late in the evening and — ’ ’ 

“It came too late in the evening,” Renfro 
smiled. “I bring it before any other carrier on 
this route brings the other evening papers. 
And I can prove it. You ask any of the people 
on my route.” 

The man hesitated. Renfro reached into his 
bag and brought out a paper. “I’ll leave one 
now and stop on my way home to get your 
order,” he smiled. 

The man took the paper and laughed. “I’ll 
see,” he promised. “I’m going to call up the 
grocer on the corner and see if you are the first 
boy out with your papers,” he added. “My 
wife wants an early paper, so she can read it 
before she starts getting the supper.” 

Renfro turned to Merl as they walked toward 
the street. “After that I have to be prompt,” 
he said. “We’ll carry my papers now. From 
now on — I’ll carry my route before I try to get 
a single new subscriber.” 

Merle nodded. “Yes, Hooch,” he agreed. 


RENFRO BECOMES A MENTOR 111 


4 4 I’ll remember that, too.’ ’ 

He reached out his arm for the papers and 
Renfro gave him half the bundle. Together they 
traversed Old Grief, with its pawn shops, sec- 
ond hand stores, lunch wagons, cheap butcher 
stores, army supply store and dozens of other 
“imitation places of business”. Then they 
came into the poorer residence district, where 
the children fought for the honor of carrying 
the paper to the door. From this they passed 
into the street on which lived the old residents 
of Lindendale, who would not leave their an- 
cestral homes. 

4 4 There, ’ ’ Renfro nodded toward the big 
house surrounded with shrubbery which needed 
trimming, 4 4 is where Judge Wier lives — Helen 
Wier’s father.” 

Merle Riker stared. 4 4 J udge Wier helped my 
mother,” he said simply, 44 I hope some one 
finds his daughter. He’s a kind man.” 

Renfro laughed. 4 4 Most people don’t know 
it,” he added. 

At one house Renfro stopped to collect. The 
woman had not had her money Saturday and 
was inclined to show an ugly disposition be- 


112 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


cause Renfro had stopped for it in the middle 
of the week instead of waiting until the next 
Saturday. 

It isn’t convenient for me to pay every time,” 
she said in a cross voice, 4 4 and if you’re afraid 
to trust me, I’ll get another paper.” 

Renfro looked straight at her. “I have to pay 
for my papers every week,” he said. “And I 
come every evening thru the rain and snow and 
cold, right on time, because it’s my job. And 
you — ” 

“I suppose you were going to say mine is to 
pay you on time too,” the woman was still 
surly though she saw Renfro’s logic before he 
had time to utter it all. “Wait.” 

She went into the house and returned with 
twenty cents. 

“She’ll pay next Saturday,” Merle spoke be- 
fore Renfro could. “She saw what you meant 
and knew you were right, too.” 

The route finished, Renfro again consulted 
his red book, in which all his prospective cus- 
tomers were listed. “Want to try a place of 
business?” he asked, “Or, are all the people on 
your route families.” 


RENFRO BECOMES A MENTOR 113 


Merle shook his head and explained that he 
had three blocks of the east side stores in his 
route, though few of the merchants who kept 
them were regular customers. “They buy the 
papers on the street, ’ 9 he explained, “ so I don ’t 
think it ’s much diff erence whether or not I have 
them . 9 9 

“Means more money for you,” Renfro gave 
the best reason first, the one which he knew 
would appeal to a boy needing money. “Then, 
too, when they want a paper they buy most any 
one. If the boy they meet doesn’t have the 
Globe they may ask another boy for one, but if 
the second one doesn’t happen to have one then 
the chances are even that they will buy another 
paper. Get me?” 

Merle nodded. 

So back to the pawn shop, and second hand 
clothing store district they went. It was a 
butcher shop, however, into which Renfro led the 
way. He smiled at the man behind the block 
and waited until the customer had been served 
and departed with his bundle. “Read the 
paper I left yesterday?” he asked, “and how 
did you like the market report?” 


114 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


The butcher came around from behind the 
block to discuss the market report. He ad- 
mitted that he had liked the report in the Globe. 
“But I can buy it of the street boy who comes 
in every evening,” he volunteered. “I don’t 
need to bother to subscribe. It wastes my 
time. ’ ’ 

“Oh, no,” Renfro shook his head but was 
very courteous, “It won’t take you nearly so 
much time to pay me once a week as it does to 
pay the boys on the street every day. And 
sometimes they forget to come in or you have 
a customer and they can’t wait, then you have 
to go to the door and hunt one up. ’ ’ 

The man grinned. “Oh, beat it,” he 
laughed good naturedlv, “you want my sub- 
scription. Is it a prize?” 

“I want to save you time,” Renfro was still 
serious, “and money. Sometimes you can’t 
get the Globe when you go out after it, because 
the boys may be sold out. Then you have to take 
another paper and you have a different market 
report. And you may lose money because the 
other will not be so thorough.” 

“Yes,” the butcher was serious now. “You 


RENFBO BECOMES A MENTOR 115 


are a good talker, and I will subscribe to save 
time. It is just as you say, though I never 
thought of it before. You make out a card and 
I’ll pay now and you bring it tomorrow. 
Early !” 

“ Yes, sir,” Renfro began making out the card. 

The next prospective subscriber was a woman, 
one of the have-to-be-convinced of everything 
sort. Renfro had left her a paper the evening 
before and she had read it but yet she couldn’t 
see much difference between it and the evening 
paper she had taken for five years. Renfro 
opened one of his papers, carried it to the li- 
brary table, showed her the Woman’s page, ex- 
plained the information which it contained, 
talked about the features, the editorials, and 
knowing the nature of most women, ended with 
its strong society column. 

“ I ’ll try it, ’ ’ she agreed. 4 4 1 ’ll take it a week 
and then if every copy is as good as your two 
samples, I’ll subscribe regularly.” 

“ Every copy is just like the sample.” Ren- 
fro was sober then. 

But outside he and Merle chuckled. “She 
thinks we get out extra good papers for 


116 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


samples,” they laughed and laughed. 

“I’d like to go back to the first man you gave 
the sample paper,” Merle said at the sidewalk. 
“I think I understand now how to get cus- 
tomers but I’d like to see what he does.” 

Back to the little L shaped house they went. 
The man was ready for them. “The man at 
the corner says you are all right.” What I 
want is an early evening paper, so I’ll sign your 
subscription card.” 

“That is the secret of getting subscriptions,” 
Renfro confided to Merle when they were alone 
again.” Find out what your prospective cus- 
tomers want and then show them that your 
paper is the one which gives them exactly that — 
from early papers to those which are carefully 
folded and put in a convenient place on the 
front porch.” 


CHAPTER XH. 


THE SCRATCHES ON THE WINDOW. 

M ARY was in the kitchen when Renfro 
stormed in the back entrance at his 
home that evening. He heard her begin 
to rattle pans and he knew that she was going 
to see to it that he got an extra good supper. 
“ Another turkey, Mary,” he sang out while 
he hung his paper bag and cap on the hooks 
she had given to him. 

Cautiously she came to the door. “There’s 
company in the living room with your paw and 
maw,” she whispered sibilantly. “They’re talk- 
ing about the kidnaping. I’ve been lying down 
close to the door — face and stomach to the 
floor,” she confided. “I crawled backwards 
when I heard you cornin’ and Glory be, I got 
clean thru the dining room without knockin’ 
anything over.” 

Renfro followed her into the kitchen. “Gee, 
but I’m hungry,” he sniffed. “Mary, love, what 
have you to feed me?” 

Mary became stem. “A pretty detective you 
are, Mr. Renny,” she refused to use his manly 


118 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


nickname at the hour of his failure in her eyes. 
“Aint I been thro win’ clues in the shapes of 
hints at you ever since I begin talkin’? Aint 
I done got down off my own dignity and told 
you how downcast I was on that floor? And 
what’s to prevent you but a empty stomach 
from followin’ my example and learnin’ things 
your paw and maw never would tell you?” 

“Aw, Mary, don’t be so hard on a fellow,” 
Renfro ’s voice was pleading. 4 ‘ I was so hungry 
and I couldn ’t grasp any kind of a hint. Course 
I’m going to go in there. Only, for goodness 
sake, have my supper ready when the talk 
changes to other subjects!” 

But Mary seized his shoulders. “You’re goin’ 
to do no such thing!” she commanded. “Your 
supper is in the warming closet. Take it out 
and eat it with the other things on the kitchen 
table. It’s meself who’s goin’ back. If any- 
body starts into the room, distract them, 
Hooch.” 

The next minute she was down on the floor 
and wriggling her way across the dark dining 
room. A big red and green snake could not 
have made any more twists and turns than she 


SCRATCHES ON THE WINDOW 119 


did in getting across the room. Renfro knew 
that she was so bulky that she was afraid to 
try to lie down in the dining room, so she had 
instead taken this way of getting to the door. 

He held his hands to his sides to keep from 
laughing so that she could hear him. ‘ ‘ Bulky 
but ambitious,” he laughed, “and a good pal,” 
he finished soberly. 

B'aek he went to the supper, rattling the 
pans and dishes unnecessarily so that his par- 
ents would know that he was home and be 
more comfortable. Straight thru oyster soup, 
roast mutton and peach pie he waded. He was 
just ready to venture on a second cup of coffee 
when he heard Mary nearing the kitchen door. 

Just outside the door she straightened. Dis- 
gustedly she spoke, “If them Wiers aint goin’ 
to have some detectives from Chicago, and us 
with such a good clue.” 

Renfro’s face fell. This then would prob- 
ably be the end of his hopes to solve the mys- 
tery. Still there was a chance for him. No one 
except himself and Mary knew of the missing 
eyebrows. 

Then he told Mary about his visit to Captain 


120 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


Pete’s cabin and the conversation. “Mary!” 
Renfro stood up in his excitement, “Pete’s face 
was a dead give away when I mentioned the 
lights in the big house. His eyes were as scared 
as a kid’s. He knows that somebody is there, 
and I’m going to find out who that somebody 
is and just where the rest of those missing 
eyebrows are.” 

Mary nodded her head. “Our part of them, 
Renfro, are still in my Bible,” she assured 
him. “I’ve looked at them every hour to see 
they don ’t fade away. And I bought me a black- 
board to reproduce them as your pa says, for 
our observation — so as to keep ’em in our mind 
night and day.” 

In the library Mr. Horn was telling the visit- 
ing lawyer about Renfro’s experience with a 
paper route when the youngster entered the 
room. He boasted of his new subscribers to 
his mother’s chagrin. “If she knew I was work- 
ing for Thanksgiving turkeys she would die,” 
Renfro laughed to himself. “I’ve half a notion 
to spring it on her now.” 

But he didn’t. He lingered long enough to 
be sure that they were not going to talk about 


SCRATCHES ON THE WINDOW 121 


the kidnaping any more, and then he went up 
to his own room. For a half hour he worked 
checking up on his new subscribers and collec- 
tions. This done he took up the new magazine 
on his desk and tore off the cover. i ‘ It had been 
on his desk three days unopened — a happening 
which had never before occurred. And all be- 
cause of his interest in the turkey contest and 
the Missing Eyebrow Mystery. 

He read the last chapter of the serial. And 
then he sought Mary again. “It ended just 
the way I said it would/ ’ he told her waving 
the magazine in front of her. “The two fel- 
lows who took the jewels were Fred and Manuel 
and they hid them — ” 

Mary’s hand was raised imperatively. “Lis- 
ten Hooch,” she said. “I’ve been making plans 
myself. Tomorrow night is my regular choir 
practice. Before I go to it I’ll come out on 
Washington and we’ll both go to them different 
places — one of us to the shack and the other to 
the big house. Then we’ll see who is in both 
places at the same time. That way they’ll have 
no chance to send signals or communicate to 
each other.” 


122 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


‘ 4 Fine, fine, Mary!” Renfro’s enthusiasm was 
all that Mary could ask. She murmured some- 
thing about the pity being that Renfro too 
had not taken a correspondence course in de- 
tective work and her bosom heaved with pride. 

“But, Mary,” Renfro hesitated, “are you 
sure you won’t mind missing choir practice?” 

Missing choir practice was one of Mary’s 
greatest horrors. In all the fifteen years that 
she had sung alto in the mission church, she 
had not missed one practice. And now she was 
planning to deliberately miss one. 

But she wasn’t. The next minute she set 
Renfro to rights on that. “I said I might be 
late,” she said severely, “I’m countin’ on us 
workin’ fast. I’m not going to miss nothin’ I 
tell you.” 

But she did miss something. Then next morn- 
ing at exactly five o’clock the Horn telephone 
rang. Mary, calling down maledictions on the 
head of whoever would call at that hour, listen- 
ed to the conversation at the other end of the 
wire and with a changed mien proceeded to 
Renfro’s door. 

It was Jimmie who called. The carrier boy 


SCRATCHES ON THE WINDOW 123 


whose Morning Post route was adjoining his 
had badly frozen his foot the night before. His 
first aid w T ork had relieved him somewhat the 
night before but this morning he could not 
walk. And Jimmie wanted Renfro to help him 
carry the other boy’s route. 

“I told him you would,” Mary was hunting 
Renfro’s heaviest coat. 4 ‘It’s not so cold as it 
was last night, Renny, ’ ’ And I knew you would 
want to be a good scout and help a carrier out. 
Now that’s the way I am. When the soprano 
soloist was sick and out of church for a whole 
week once, I sang high sporano when it was the 
most important part in the songs and then 
dropped right back to alto when the low parts 
were most important. There’s nothin’ — ” 

But Renfro was motioning her to the door. 
4 4 I’ve got to dress in a hurry,” he told her. 
4 4 You explain to father and let him make it 
right with mother. Now, Mary, for heaven’s 
sake keep still before mother and don’t get 
her started. Let dad — ” 

A few minutes later he was off, buttoning 
his coat collar as he ran toward the station 
at which Jimmie got his papers. And there he 


124 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


found Jimmie waiting for him. 4 ‘Hooch Horn,” 
he said impressively, “you’re a good scout. I 
called up six fellows’ houses before I did yours 
and every place I got Hail Columbia, Happy 
Land for waking up the family. And you — ” 

“And I, Jimmie,” Renfro said impressively, 
“I tell you the reason you didn’t get the same 
dope at the seventh house was because Mary 
Dugan, good old scout, answered the phone.” 

And so flustered was Mary that morning with 
extra breakfasts and avoiding any mix-ups with 
her mistress that she forgot to read the morn- 
ing paper. Renfro in turn did not have time 
to even think of such a feast. As he folded the 
papers he had glanced at the headlines, which 
told of Judge Wier’s summoning the Chicago 
detectives and Mrs. Wier ’s getting another note 
from Helen, it also asserting that she was safe. 

So she was frightened half “into fits” as she 
expressed it when Renfro rushed into the 
kitchen in the middle of the morning. “Mary, 
where is mother?” he demanded in a loud 
whisper. 

Mary answered that she was out. 

“Then I can talk,” he added, “Mary, we are 


SCRATCHES ON THE WINDOW 125 


lost; or our clue is — no, I mean discovered by 
some one else. I borrowed a morning paper 
last hour and there what do you think? Yester- 
day Mrs. Wier, while walking up and down the 
library happened to look at the window from 
which most of the ice had melted and discovered 
some little scratches I made with my knife when 
I scraped off those eyebrows.’ ’ 

He caught his breath. ‘ ‘Of course she doesn’t 
know they’re mine,” he added. 4 ‘But she 
showed them to the detectives and vowed they 
were not there before — that the windows were 
put in new this fall and were perfect and — ” 

His teeth chattering. Mary’s big, strong, red 
hand went over his trembling ones. “Hooch 
Horn,” she said sternly, “You aint worrying 
half so much over them finding a clue like ourn 
as you are because you’re skeert they’ll think 
you had something to do with that kidnaping! 
Now aint you?” 

Before Renfro could answer she stormed on, 
“Well, they won’t. You and me is too small 
fry to even be considered. They know you aint 
got sense enough to plan such a thing. If they 
thought we was workin’ on a clue they would 


126 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


give us the horse collar. And that’s why we 
got to work this plot out, See?” 

She shook him soundly. “We ’ll go out there 
tonight as we planned. And you git back to 
school. Pretty soon you’ll have that sick ex- 
cuse worn clean out. Git back, I say, in a hurry 
so that I can read the newspaper and see for 
myself just what they do know about them 
winder scratches.” 


CHAPTER Xin. 


A TRIP TO THE CABIN. 

I T was exactly a quarter of seven o’clock 
that night and Renfro with his paper bag 
almost empty had just turned the corner 
into South Washington Street when he ran 
plump — into Mary Dugan. She was puffing 
as one who had been undergoing great exer- 
tion. 

4 ‘ Hello, Hooch ! ’ ’ she managed a casual greet- 
ing and then burst straight into a monologue on 
the difficulties of her journey. She had hired 
her sister to come over to the Horn house to 
serve the dinner, and the sister had been late. 
Mary had boarded the wrong ear and had had 
to transfer on her way out and — . 

“But Mary,” Renfro exclaimed, “You’re 
too early! Something broke down with the 
press, we got our papers late. I haven’t got a 
single new subscriber and I have two more 
blocks to deliver.” 

“On both sides of the street?” Mary’s ques- 
tion was direct. 

“Sure!” Renfro was impatient. 


128 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


“Then gimme me half of them,” Mary held 
out her hands on which were gray cotton gloves 
and which looked like veritable apparitions in 
the darkness. “Now don’t say I won’t know 
where to leave ’em. I know I won’t. But we 
kin work skilful — can’t we? I’ll start right 
across the street from you and you whistle at 
every house where I’m to stop.” 

“Some girl, Mary Dugan,” Renfro began to 
count out papers into her hands, “Now where 
did you learn — ” 

“Hooch Horn,” Mary interrupted him al- 
most dropping her papers in her eagerness to 
explain. “You aint learned yet half the clues 
I learned in that detective course.” 

The papers tumbled again, and would have 
fallen had not Hooch caught them. “It’s them 
gloves,” Mary was quick to realize the impedi- 
ments the bulky cotton gloves were in the paper 
carrying art. Her right one came off with a 
dash and was thrust into her coat pocket. 

‘ ‘ Now gimme the part of the street you know 
best,” she commanded. “Your whistler will be 
saved some that way.” 

A wave of Renfro’s hand and Mary darted 


A TRIP TO THE CABIN 


129 


across the street. Without any sign, or any 
communication except the keen whistles from 
Renfro, they finished the two blocks in record 
breaking time. And then they met at the end of 
the block. 

“But I haven’t got any new subscribers, 
Mary, ’ ’ Renfro hesitated, “I made my daily 
quota out several days ago and I can’t break 
it, you know.” 

4 ‘ And I made my rule agin ’ bein ’ late at choir 
practice several years ago,” Mary’s alto voice 
was very dry, “but I’m thinkin’ this here busi- 
ness is worth breakin’ anything. This here 
affair of our goin’ down there tonight means 
either you miss your subscribers or I miss my 
choir practice and — ” 

“Mary,” Hooch’s hand went on her arm. 
“Since you are so good a sport, I can make 
up my subscribers Saturday and Monday.” 

“You ought to be gettin’ them other sub- 
scribers from our own part of town, Hooch,” 
Mary offered advice, “They’d be easier landed 
and — ” 

“But it doesn’t seem fair to g)et into 
some other fellow’s territory,” Hooch began. 


130 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


Now — " 

Mary interrupted him in a determined voice. 
“ Foolishness! Them circulars you had at home 
said for you to go anywhere. If you had a 
good route them other boys would be a cornin' 
to it mighty fast. And if you have any busi- 
ness sense like the Horns all have, you'll fol- 
low my plan." 

“All right," Renfro was very meek. Ex- 
perience had taught him that it was folly to 
argue with Mary. “We go down this road, 
Mary, down the middle. It's as slick as glass 
and I expect we'd better hold on to each other. 
We don't want any broken arms." 

Mary clutched Renfro 's arm with her mitten- 
ed hand. Together they slipped, they slid, then 
fumbled, and nearly fell on their way toward 
the lane which marked the turning off place for 
the big house, and the little shack. 

The sky was clear, there were few trees along 
the road, and there was a half moon. So Mary 
and Hooch had no trouble finding the best place 
to scale the log fence. Mary refused all offers 
of help. She had climbed rail fences when she 
was a girl and knew the exact art with which 


A TRIP TO THE CABIN 


131 


such a crossing was effected. Moreover she 
added with emphasis that she “was not an old 
lady yet by any manner of means.’ ’ 

Still she had not counted on the rails being 
coated with ice. And no sooner was she at the 
top of the fence than she was at the bottom on 
the other side. Fortunately it was on the op- 
posite side of the fence she had landed and when 
Renfro scrambled over and stood beside her 
she was on her feet again. 

She held herself with dignity and Renfro 
realizing that there are some things which it 
would cause a calamity to discuss was silent. 
She was the first one to speak. “You go to the 
shack and I’ll go to the big house,” she was the 
general again though great had been her fall. 
4 1 It would be suspicious looking to Captain Pete 
for me, a single maiden lady to come knockin’ 
at his door this time of night.” 

“Yes,” Renfro’s voice was meek. Mary 
never suspected that he was literally holding 
his sides to keep from bursting into gales of 
laughter. 

“And,” Mary was all dignity again. “I 
don’t want any man to be buildin’ up false hopes 


132 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


on me. It is not Mary Dugan who has yet 
brought ruin to a man from raisin’ their expec- 
tations and she don’t begin now with an old 
time soldier.” 

“No, Mary,” Renfro managed another sober 
response. 

Just then there was a crackling and half roar- 
ing sound over in the shrubbery of the orchard. 
Just as Mary and Renfro stopped and clutched 
at each other a dark form came out with a rush 
and threw itself against Renfro ’s legs. 

Mary stumbled, almost fell and then ejaculat- 
ed a word which she had not used since she had 
become a choir singer, but Renfro patted the big 
dog and soothed him. * 1 Lang Tammy, Lang 
Tammy,” he crooned, and then he felt a broken 
strap on the dog’s neck, “they’ve had you tied 
up tonight and you wanted to see me — didn’t 
you?” 

“Whose dog is he?” Mary demanded with 
asperity, thinking that Renfro had kept some- 
thing from her. 

But Renfro reminded her of the dog which 
had been with the old man whom he suspected 
of being Captain Pete’s brother, and who he 


A TRIP TO THE CABIN 


133 


was sure knew a great deal about the affair. 
4 ‘Yes, I remember,” Mary was the general once 
again. “You’d better get rid of him if you can. 
Havin’ him with us would be suspicious.” 

Lang Tammy was tugging at Renfro’s bag. 
For a few seconds Renfro played with him, and 
while he did Mary fumbled in her pocket. She 
dropped something on the ice. “Some of my 
peppermints,” she explained. “My Brother 
Sam — he alius says if you wants to be friends 
with a dog just give him some candy.” 

And then Renfro uttered a short, sharp com- 
mand and Lang Tammy was back in the orchard 
again. Renfro was aware that the big dog 
would not show up again that night. The after- 
noon ’s tying had offended him. And he would 
stay away from the big house to get even with 
his master. 

He watched the dark form in the orchard 
while they went up the lane, and he took the op- 
posite direction from the one in which the big 
house lay. A few more rods of slipping and 
sliding and he and Mary arrived at their place 
of parting. He gave her some instructions 
about making her way around the big house. 


134 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


“The main thing, Mary dear,” Renfro was 
solicitous again, “the main thing is not to fall, 
you know.” 

“Yes, I know,” there was a touch of humor 
in Mary’s voice, “Me father used to say that 
I had the most trouble in keepin’ my head but 
tonight it’s a case of whin me worst trouble is 
keepin’ me feet I’m thinkin’.” 

And then they separated. 

Renfro found Captain Pete’s door. The old 
man unbarred it, held high his little old lamp 
with the blackened chimney, identified his 
visitor and gruffly commanded him to come in. 
The rabbits were ready, but for the life of him 
he couldn’t see any use of Renfro’s coming so 
late. When he was young parents didn’t allow 
their sons to be out so late, and — 

“But I had to carry my paper route,” Renfro 
spoke pleasantly, and the captain thawed to an 
extent. 

When he went to wrap the rabbits in an old 
newspaper he muttered something about being 
short on paper and Renfro brought his two 
extra papers out of his bag. “Seeing you 
won’t be a regular customer without being 


A TRIP TO THE CABIN 


135 


shown the advantage of a newspaper, Captain 
Pete,” Renfro smiled a winning smile, “Pm 
going to sample you for a while as the boys say. 
Every night I have an extra paper I’ll bring it 
down to you and soon I’ll warrant you ’ll be a 
regular customer. I always carry an extra so 
that if I get a new customer, I can leave the 
paper right then. 

Pete shook his head. He muttered something 
about it being too far for a boy to come alone. 
All of which only made Renfro more determined 
to visit him. As he had declared the night be- 
fore the actions of Captain Pete were evident 
that though innocent himself perhaps, he was 
not ignorant altogether about the kidnaping of 
Helen Wier. 

Outside of the shack Renfro circled around 
to avoid suspicion, should Captain Pete happen 
to open the door again, and worked his way 
back to the meeting place he and Mary had ap- 
pointed. He waited, he counted the minutes, 
he fumed, he fretted and still no Mary arrived. 
He pulled out his watch with its radio face and 
saw that it was a quarter after eight o ’clock. 

“Mary won’t get to sing alto tonight,” he 


136 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


murmured to himself. “ We’ll get back to town 
just about the time it’s over. ,, 

And then Mary came. She clutched at his 
arm. “I can't be stoppin' to talk," she was 
hurrying him toward the fence. ‘ 4 1 've promised 
the leader I'd get there in time to practice the 
Sunday anthem and I will keep me promise too. 
You can go with me on the car, Hooch." 

“And say," they were at the fence again, 
“I've got a few clues of my own. And," Mary 
put her foot on the first rail, “You help me all 
you can. That falling down sort of affected my 
constitution, Hooch." 


CHAPTER XIV. 


THE MAN IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE. 

M ARY was the first one to speak, and then 
it was to reassure Renfro, “You need- 
n’t worry about your folks askin’ any 
questions,” she told him. “They went to 
the show unexpected like and won’t know what 
time you get home. I heard your paw tell your 
maw he ’s got the tickets and he bought only two 
for he thought you needed to go to bed early 
after bein’ out so late with your route.” 

Renfro nodded and felt a bit of relief. He 
and Mary were near the center of the car. Mary 
had chosen that spot because there were few 
passengers there and they could talk without 
being afraid some one could hear them. 

All the passengers and even the conductor 
had stared at the odd pair when they boarded 
the car. Several had smiled broadly and Ren- 
fro had been indignant until he had happened 
to look at Mary and someway in her downfall 
at the fence she had gotten her hat turned com- 
pletely around. The big red rose directly on the 
back of her hat was too much for him. And he 


138 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


too giggled. 

“Mary,” lie whispered, “Your hat’s back 
slided and — ” 

Mary Dugan laughed heartily. “Don’t make 
much difference,” she added, “Me nose and 
face is so bloomin’ red tonight I don’t need the 
rose for any further touch of color to me make 
up.” 

And then she began to tell about her experi- 
ences. She had moved close to the big house at 
the corner at which she had arrived, keeping a 
close look out for the big airedale which she 
felt sure would turn up at the most unexpected 
minute. Carefully she had worked her way 
around the house — the west side, the south side, 
the east and there she had discovered her first 
sign of life in the big house. 

A glimmer of light thru a torn place in the 
heavy blind over the window. She had realized 
in a minute that thru those thick blinds she 
would not discover anything. So she had felt 
her way around to the north, found a loose 
weatherboard, pulled it off and worked the 
blade of her knife, which she always carried, 
thru the plastering. A few vigorous, skilful 


MAN IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE 139 


twists >aiid she had worked a hole which made a 
good peeping place for her right eye. 

Her homely face became alight with the joy 
of success. She had chosen that spot well. It 
gave her a view into the lighted room. Cau- 
tiously then she had worked out another peep 
hole for the left eye and then she had studied 
every move in the adjoining room. 

After a time she had discovered that there 
was but one occupant and that he was exceeding- 
ly cautious. He moved always so that he was 
not near the window. He had passed the door- 
way only three or four times and each of these 
times Mary had studied him closely. He was 
short, heavy set, his hair was gray, his clothes 
of an ancient style and he was what Mary term- 
ed “uncouth” getting an “ou” sound which 
Kenfro felt that he would always remember. 

But he had never once turned his face toward 
the open doorway and Mary had not seen his 
face. So, of course, she knew nothing of the 
condition of his eyebrows. But she felt sure 
that they would be missing. His hair had been 
white. Naturally his eyebrows would be too. 
His hair looked as if it were very coarse. 


140 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


And the eyebrows in captivity back in her 
Bible were so coarse that had they been scatter- 
ed on the floor they would hardly have been 
taken for human hair. 

Moreover the man was in hiding. That was 
plainly evident. And Captain Pete? Didn’t 
that wily old fellow show by his actions that he 
was helping to conceal some one in the big 
house? 

Eenfro clutched his paper bag in which were 
the rabbits. Yes, indeed, he would watch Cap- 
tain Pete. But Mary was not thinking much 
of watching Captain Pete. They must find some 
way to see that man’s face. No use to knock. 
They would have to plan some better ruse than 
that. She would think about it over night, she 
assured Renfro, re-read some of her correspond- 
ence course in 4 4 detectiveness ” and be ready 
to have a conference with him on the next day. 

4 4 Some plan, partner,” Renfro slapped Mary 
boyishly on the back completely dislodging her 
hat. “You’re a brick, a gold one, and a jeweled 
one and — ” 

“A plain chimney one,” Mary laughed while 
she twisted and turned her hat until she felt 


MAN IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE 141 


that from the way it set on her head that the 
red rose was either directly in front or behind. 
A cautious search with her fingers made her 
mind easy on that, and she continued her con- 
versation. “All right, Hooch, only don’t never 
call me a brick for a foundation. It’ll make 
me think of that fence and my downfall. All 
the way to that house I was so frivolous like, 
that I kept humming over and over. ‘ How firm 
a foundation, Ye Saints of the Lord’, and 
laughin’ because I, one of the Saints, couldn’t 
git over a wobbly log fence, and wonderin ’ what 
I would do should I strike a firm foundation in 
my path.” 

They had reached the mission, now, and the 
choir was in full force of rehearsal. The bass 
was leading much to Mary’s disgust. She snort- 
ed derisively and assured Renfro that when she 
got in there they wouldn’t ever hear that in- 
surance agent, who put on airs, sing. 

At the door when he turned to go home she 
suddenly clutched at his coat. “Oh, Hooch,” 
she whispered, “I clean forgot to tell you some- 
thing very disturbin’ I read. When them detec- 
tives looked at them scratches on the window 


142 


THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


they said right away they had been done by a 
knife and then they found two of them coarse 
hairs. They didn’t think much of them, the 
paper says, but still they are keeping them. 
And” she pushed him down the steps, “that 
means we have got to work fast.” 

Renfro found that he was trembling when he 
reached the foot of the steps — not from fear of 
being apprehended himself but of some other 
person discovering the kidnapers before he 
could. His only hope lay in the fact that the 
detectives had all based their search on the idea 
that Helen Wier had been kidnaped by persons 
who would either soon demand a ransom or by 
some one who wanted to have revenge on Judge 
Wier. 

And neither Captain Pete nor his brother 
could have that motive in mind he was sure. He 
had investigated some old newspapers at the 
Globe office that evening and found that Judge 
Wier had been a mere stripling of a lawyer when 
Captain Pete’s brother had been found guilty 
of counterfeiting and been sent to prison. Also 
he had not had anything to do with the prosecu- 
tion. 


MAN IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE 143 


He looked back over his shoulder, and saw 
the light in the windows of Mary’s church even 
down to the basement. It was all a brilliant 
blaze. “A fire!” He gasped and started to 
run back. 

Then he remembered. Mary had said that 
the charitable women of the church were going 
to work there that night to fix Thanksgiving 
baskets for the poor. They were making clothes 
for them. The other members of the church 
would have to donate the food and clothing. 

Renfro gave a sudden jump. It was followed 
by another, and then a wild Highland fling. “I 
have it, I have it, I have it ! ’ ’ he yelled out loud. 

A door opened directly in front of him. An 
inquisitive head was thrust out, a fretful voice 
asked, “ What’s the matter?” 

And Renfro fled. 

Half way down the block he stopped to laugh. 
‘ ‘ But it was worth making some one think I was 
insane,” he laughed. ‘ * And I’ll do it, too.” 

Early in the morning he would go to the min- 
ister of the church which his mother, his father 
and himself attended. He would tell him about 
the turkeys. He would offer three of them to 


144 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


the poor, which the church would feed at 
Thanksgiving time. There were many people 
in that wealthy church who bought The Globe 
on the street instead of being regular subscri- 
bers. He would add some of them to his list. 

“I’ll do it — I will,” he whispered this time. 

But his whisper was full of ardor. 4 4 And wait 
until next week when I see Morrison’s face. 
Ten of those turkeys are mine.” 

Just then he decided to go into a little lunch 
room hardly bigger than the lunch wagons in the 
west part of town, and get himself something 
warm to drink. There was one near the corner 
at which the car stopped. He looked through 
the door, saw the steaming 4 4 hot dogs” on an 
iron grate and entered. 

The place was deserted except for the old 
man doing the cooking and a dog lying close to 
his little stove. The big dog was a collie and a 
very suspicious creature for he barked at Ren- 
fro as he entered. The man quieted him with a 
hoarse growl, took Renfro’s order and filled it 
all the time frowning sullenly as if he consider- 
ed a customer an insult. 

He was tall and thin and bent and broken. 


MAN IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE 145 


Evidence of a hard life were written all over 
him. His shrewd eyes spoke volumes about 
bartering. Renfro was wondering about the 
methods he used when there sounded on the 
back door an imperative tapping and the man 
went back to answer it. 

Renfro watched him swing some rabbits into 
view, heard him quarrel about the shots being 
in their bodies instead of their heads, and smil- 
ed when he paid the person who was selling the 
rabbits with a handful of small coins. “Seems 
to lower the price that way,” he thought. 

And then he listened closely. The restaurant 
man has said something about the thickets west 
of town being full of rabbits and that a fellow 
who had access to them ought to be a little 
cheaper on his rabbits to a poor restaurant man 
than was this old man. 

With a careful, quiet movement he was off 
his stool, and had started toward the front door. 
But the big dog intercepted his progress, had 
given a series of growls and stood in a menac- 
ing position till the owner slammed the door 
and came to Renfro’s rescue. 

The man was half way down the street before 


146 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


Renfro was to the front door. And it was evi- 
dent he did not intend taking a car so Renfro 
skirted around a block and passed him farther 
down, face to face. 

At least Renfro’s face was toward the 
other’s, whose visage was shaded by a heavy 
pair of goggles. 

But Renfro knew one thing. The man was 
not Captain Pete. And he was almost sure of 
another. That he was the man whom he had 
met face to face the first time he had seen Lang 
Tammy. But of one thing he was uncertain. 
Mary had seen a stranger in the big house a 
short time before. Then how could he have got- 
ten across the town on foot in such a short time ? 


CHAPTER XV. 


A DEAL IN TURKEYS. 

S ATURDAY was almost over before Ren- 
fro got to see the Rev. Mr. Bottleman, 
who was the clergyman in charge of the 
church which he and his parents attended. He 
had made his first trip to the parsonage early 
in the morning, before he had time to tell Mary 
about the stranger at the little lunch room on 
the night before. 

And Mr. Bottleman had been out making some 
early morning calls on the sick. But his wife, 
a very friendly woman giggled and blushed like 
a young girl, assured Renfro that he would be 
back at noon and urged him to come then as she 
always considered the time, during which a man 
was eating, the best time to make a request. 

She and Renfro had been friends since Ren- 
fro’s dog had ruined the garden of the deacon, 
whose wife criticized the parsonage lady for the 
length or rather the lack of length to her street 
costume. Though she didn’t have any idea 
what sort of a request he was going to make of 
her minister husband she determined to help 


148 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


obtain it if she could. 

From there Renfro had gone direct to a meet- 
ing of Morrison’s carriers. Morrison usually 
had meetings only on great occasions such as 
giving out Christmas presents or the bestowing 
of prizes won by his boys or for other events of 
that order, but this time he felt that one was 
necessary to stimulate all the carriers in his 
district to carry away Thanksgiving turkeys. 

It was the first time Renfro had seen the boys 
who worked in his part of town together. They 
filled Morrison’s room, Boy scouts in uniform, 
tall boys out of uniform, little ones in corduroy 
suits and fat ones in heavy overcoats. The boy 
next Renfro was a Freshman in high school and 
the son in a family of eight children, all the boys 
in which were then or had been newspaper 
carriers. 

“It’s just like joining the army,” he in- 
formed Renfro. “Once it gets in your blood 
you have to enlist. And we kids had to work 
to pay our way thru high school.” 

Morrison began talking. He told them how 
nearly to the winning mark several carriers on 
other routes were. Then he gave the rating of 
the boys in his own section. Renfro smiled 


A DEAL IN TURKEYS 


149 


when his name was read first on the list. Now 
if his Sunday idea worked out all right he was 
sure that he would move up miles ahead by Mon- 
day. 

“ Hooch Horn,” Morrison beamed on Renfro, 
‘ * has Old Grief, and he got every one of his sub- 
scribers out there on that route.” 

The boy who had carried the route in the 
spring laughed derisively. “Gettin’ subscrip- 
tions out there,” he said, “is as easy as eatin’ 
pan cakes on a eold morning. But collecting 
the money for them is just the same as eatin’ 
them same pancakes when it’s hot in July.” 

Renfro stared at him but was silent. He 
knew that Morrison would tell him how many 
subscriptions had been paid in advance. And 
Morrison did. He had big hopes for Hooch he 
said. 

After the talk Renfro noticed that the older 
carrier boys eyed him with respect. It was a 
new experience for him to be rated according to 
his own work and not just according to his 
father’s reputation, and he liked it. None of 
the boys there knew whether his father was a 
financier or a butcher; but they all did know 


150 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


that he was a successful route carrier for The 
Globe and that was what counted. 

The meeting over, Renfro called up the par- 
sonage again but the minister was still away. 
There was no use for him to come out there to 
wait, Mrs. Bottleman told him, for her husband 
had telephoned that he was going out to a coun- 
try parishioner’s home after some supplies for 
a poor family. 

“He went with the doctor, and his car is 
pretty much out of order these cold days,” she 
laughed , i 1 so you just call from time to time to- 
day and I’ll let you know when he comes.” 

Back at his home Renfro ate his dinner and 
talked a short time to Mary. The staff of de- 
tectives following a clue which they had ob- 
tained were leaving for another city, the name 
of which was a secret. Some of Judge Wier’s 
enemies had been tracked there. 

There had been no more letters from Helen, 
so they were sure that she was out of town and 
that these, the family had received, had been 
brought back to town before they were mailed 
to avoid suspicion. Mrs. Wier had given up 
hope of ever seeing her daughter again but the 


A DEAL IN TURKEYS 


151 


Judge with his grim determination still believed 
that she would be found. 

“And the guilty parties shall be punished/ ’ 
he ended his declaration sternly. Even his 
wife’s entreaties and the detectives’ advice to 
avoid threats could not influence him. 

Mary considered this news good news. But 
as to the man who had been selling rabbits to 
the restaurant keeper the night before she 
didn’t believe he would throw any light on 
their mystery. The town was full of low heavy 
set men. And did Hooch see his eyebrows? 

Hooch had not. He had worn heavy goggles. 
But still Mary was skeptical. She had defi- 
nitely arranged in her mind, following more re- 
search in her correspondence school books, that 
the guilty parties would be lodged in the 
haunted Hall house. Of course, she didn’t ex- 
pect Helen Wier to be found there. Like the 
detectives, she believed that the child had been 
spirited out of the city, but she knew positively 
that the Hall men knew something about the 
kidnaping, “Well, all about it,” she added. 

That afternoon, the minister still being an 
absent personage, Renfro canvassed his route 


152 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


for new customers and got just three. “A 
third of a turkey, almost,’ ’ he laughed to himself. 

Saturady’s paper was out early so he was 
thru delivering it by four-thirty. He made it 
a rule to collect in the mornings. Straight from 
Washington Street he went across the town to 
to the Methodist parsonage in which the Rev. 
Bottleman lived. And there he found that that 
gentleman had just returned. 

His smile when he shook his hands with Ren- 
fro was encouraging. With spirits rising Ren- 
fro put forth a direct question, “ Would you 
like to help get some turkeys for three poor 
families in your church ? ’ ’ 

The minister didn’t smile. “You bet!” he 
agreed boyishly. 

Renfro plunged immediately iuto the story 
of the Globe’s offer of a turkey for every ten 
new subscribers their carrier boys secured. 
“I’ve made up my mind to have six,” his 
mouth closed in the firm decisive line Henry 
Horn’s did when starting a business venture, 
“And I need some more subcribers.” 

“Yes,” Mr. Bottleman raised his eyebrows. 

“I want you to annouce my proposition to 


A DEAL IN TURKEYS 


153 


your parishioners after church tomorrow morn- 
ing. Tell them that the poor get the turkeys. 
I get the business. That’s what I want.” 

“Sure I’ll do it,” a gleam of amusement 
crossed the minister’s face but Renfro didn’t 
see it. And immediately the pastor began talk- 
ing. 

“You stand at the little table just inside the 
outer door as the congregation leaves the 
church, ’ ’ he gave definite directions. 1 4 Exactly 
as I do, following a missionary sermon, and 
preceding the missionary collection. You’ll 
get some new subscribers I’m sure.” 

Back home Renfro ate his supper and planned 
to have a quiet evening. But there came a com- 
plaint from the office. Mr. Bruce had given 
directions that each boy, on whose route there 
came any complaint of a missing paper, was to 
see that that paper was properly delivered. 

And there were two missing on Old Grief. 

Renfro brought his skates and with them 
over his shoulder made his way to the street. 
With the papers in his overcoat pocket he skated 
out to the two little cottages at whose doors he 
had left papers earlier in the evening. Either 
a neighbor’s dog or a neighbor’s boy he felt 


154 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


sure had gotten the papers. 

“Gee, I hope this doesn’t last all winter/ ’ 
John Lehman, the carrier of the best route in 
town, met Renfro on Main Street with a whole 
stack of papers in his arms. “I think that the 
kidnapers must have decided to steal news- 
papers instead of lawyer’s kids. I’m so dead 
tired I wont go to church in the morning/ ’ he 
complained. 

Renfro was glad of that for John went to Dr. 
Bottleman’s church. And the next morning as 
he sat in the pew next his mother he looked 
around and did not see a single Globe carrier 
whom he knew. He waited impatiently all thru 
the sermon for Dr. Bottleman’s announcement 
about the turkey proposition. When it did 
come he felt that he was blushing to the roots 
of his hair and wondered why his mother did 
not put out her hand and say that he could not 
do that. 

But his mother was amazed along with 
several other members over the peculiar an- 
nouncement. Nor did she notice when he 
slipped out of the pew and took his stand at the 
church door. 


A DEAL IN TURKEYS 


155 


He saw neither of his parents until near the 
end of the processional of people leaving the 
church. And then he was so excited over his 
good luck in having gotten enough subscrip- 
tions, lacking one, to have won the turkeys. He 
was counting the list when he happened to look 
up and see his parents. 

His mother’s face was fiery but his father 
was smiling. Gravely he took out his pocket 
book and counted out the money for a subscrip- 
tion. ‘ i Have it sent to Mary’s mother,” he 
said, “I heard her say the other day that she 
wished they could afford the paper at her 
home.” 

Renfro took the money, gravely counted it 
and then looked up at his father, his eyes twink- 
ling, u Dad,” he said boyishly, ‘ ‘ You ’re the fel- 
low who put the finishing touches on the flock. 
Your subscription makes me have the necessary 
sixty. The turkeys are mine!” 


CHAPTER XVI. 


BOY SCOUTS TO THE RESCUE. 

T WENTY-FOUR hours passed and Mary 
Dugan knew nothing about the winning 
of the turkeys. On the way home from 
church Renfro had asked his father and mother 
not to mention his success to Mary. * 4 Afraid 
she’ll kick on cooking the whole lot?” Mr. 
Horn laughed. 

Mrs. Horn stared at her husband with hateur. 
He was in admirable humor oyer the whole af- 
fair. The Rev. Mr. Bottleman had shook his 
hand after he and Renfro had had a little talk 
over the success of the scheme. ‘ ‘ Another king 
of industry, Horn,” the minister had laughed. 

Renfro had touched his arm. “Will you 
have your three names ready for the charity 
turkeys?” he asked. “I’d like to deliver them 
in a few days.” 

“I’ll get them to you tomorrow night,” the 
minister promised. “I want to do some look- 
ing around to be sure that they are delivered at 
the homes where there are the most children.” 
He put out his hands. “Come again, when you 


BOY SCOUTS TO THE RESCUE 157 


have another deal like this one,” he said 
gravely. 

And then the Horn family had gone out to 
their car and started home. Mr. Horn, sens- 
ing the mood of his wife from the lofty eleva- 
tion of her chin, did a monologue on the sermon; 
and Renfro was trying to picture Morrison’s 
pride in the morning when he heard that six 
turkeys would go to one of his carriers. 

When suddenly Mrs. Horn gave a moan and 
grabbed her husband ’s arm. ‘ ‘ Oh, ’ 9 she began, 
4 1 what if there happened to be a reporter at the 
church. We’ll be the laughing stock of the 
town all because you gave your permission for 
him to carry that detestable route and—” 

“We ’ll be the victims of three funerals 
tomorrow if you grab my arm like that again,” 
Mr. Horn said hotly, “Didn’t you see how close 
I ran to that telephone pole?” 

Then Renfro reassured his mother. The 
Globe would not use the tetory without Mr. 
Bruce’s permission, he knew. Also no other 
paper would carry one line of it because that 
would mean free advertising for the Globe. 
“And newspapers aren’t run that way,” he 


158 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


ended. 

But Mrs. Horn was not convinced. 

However, she soon forgot her worries. A 
knot of neighbors on the corner caused Mr. 
Horn to stop his car. He found the group dis- 
cussing new turns in the Wier kidnaping. The 
detectives in a town half way across the state 
had ordered the arrest of a man, one of the 
gangsters, who had been indicted in the election 
fraud case and had left the town the night 
Helen was kidnaped. 

They would arrive in town that night. The 
man’s actions had been mysterious for several 
days before the kidnaping, in fact enough so 
for the police to send word out to watch him. 
“But as usual with our police,” said the doctor 
on the corner, who himself having been robbed 
during the fall, was vindictive, “no watching 
was done.” 

That afternoon Renfro called Morrison for 
news of the Wier kidnaping, verifying what 
news in regard to the story he had heard that 
morning. It seemed to be an assured fact that 
this man had been arrested and that he was 
being brought back tonight. 

Renfro too heard stories about the scratched 


BOY SCOUTS TO THE RESCUE 159 


window pane. But the workman who put in 
the new windows at the Wier house offered 
evidence which seemed to make all these no 
clues at all. Very seldom he said were a set 
of windows ever installed in a new home with- 
out some of them being scratched by the work- 
men. 

Most of the work done involved the use of 
knives. And these scratches were knife 
made. The chief of detectives, hearing this had 
laughed and promptly put in his desk the two 
gray hairs he had been guarding since a short 
time before. 

Monday morning papers told of the return of 
the man believed to have some knowledge of the 
crime and his incarceration in the city jail. 
Mrs. Wier’s condition, according to the story, 
was improving. Another letter had come to 
the Wier home, this one sent from a nearby 
city, written in the child’s handwriting, as- 
suring her mother that she was well and com- 
fortable. 

On his way to school Renfro telephoned Mor- 
rison. And that executive had been very jubi- 
lant. “How did you do it!” he demanded, 


160 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


“and are yon sure all your subscriptions are 
acceptable ?” 

“Sure,” Renfro laughed back, “I’ve got the 
money in advance.” 

Then came a conversation with Bruce, and 
Renfro was ordered to come around past the 
office that afternoon early enough to have his 
picture snapped with the prize turkeys. Renfro 
had laughed to himself, “mother will die,” he 
imagined her horror when she saw the picture, 
“But I can’t help it. Business is business, and 
mothers have to expect some publicity if their 
sons are successful.” 

At the office that afternoon he stood very 
straight while his picture was being made. 
The six turkeys were magnificent birds. The 
boys, who owned routes for several months, and 
those, who had been carriers for more than a 
year, were very envious. And also eager to 
hear how Renfro had secured his subscrip- 
tions. 

Mr. Bruce called Renfro into his office, and 
to him and Morrison, Renfro told the story of 
his business deal with the minister, and of its 
success. Mr. Bruce had then held out his hand. 


BOY SCOUTS TO THE RESCUE 161 


“Congratulations old man,” he had beamed. 
“You’re one of the fellows I need right at the 
post. There are going to be some vacancies 
in some dandy routes. You’ll have first choice 
at any of them.” 

“I protest,” Morrison was all dignity, “Mr. 
Bruce, Hooch belongs to my bunch. He can’t 
be sent in any other district route manager’s 
territory. ’ ’ 

It was then Renfro spoke, “If you please, 
Morrison,” he was quite in earnest, “I would 
like to keep Old Grief.” 

And both Morrison and Bruce were speech- 
less. 

A little later, Renfro decided to take his tur- 
keys home before he carried his route. That 
would make him later and he would have a bet- 
ter chance of investigating his eyebrow mys- 
tery. And after he straightened his shoulders 
and thought to himself, “The turkeys are won 
and I’ve got to solve that mystery in the same 
way I won them.” 

It was Macauley who suggested that Renfro 
drive the turkeys home— Macauley, who had a 
twinkle in his eye and a rich brogue, both of 


162 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


which should have made most people suspicious 
but they rarely did. He had lived on a farm in 
his youth. He had helped care for turkeys, 
“the most recreant birds in the category of 
farm animals,” and he laughed boyishly, “and 
always they wandered away daily while I hunted 
them daily and drove them miles. All you need, 
Hooch, is two or three fellows to help you, and 
to remember this bit of advice. KEEP TO 
THE ALLEYS FOR FEAR YOU MIGHT 
FRIGHTEN THE LADIES.” 

Three boys started out to help Renfro drive 
his brood home — among them the little carrier 
whose route was next Renfro’s and who had 
rushed into the office the minute he had heard 
that Old Grief had won Renfro six birds. Jim- 
my Noel called in a rush to be ready to offer 
first aid and have a chance to win more merit 
badges, and after him a little colored boy who 
had been playing in the alley back of the Globe 
office. 

The birds trotted down the first stretch of al- 
ley in a beautiful manner and then they crossed 
the street with the same precision. The second 
alley would have been a quiet course had it not 
been for the washwoman who was carrying a 


BOY SCOUTS TO THE RESCUE 163 


bundle of clothes toward the oncoming flock. 
Thinking these turkeys were runaway birds and 
scenting an easy way to get a Thanksgiving 
dinner she dropped her washing and started 
after the largest bird. 

And then came the stampede. Jimmy, Ren- 
fro and Bill, the other route boy kept ofter the 
turkeys which perched on buildings, ran in all 
directions and made a medley of noises which 
could never be described. But the little colored 
boy took after the woman of his own race and 
after she had given up the chase of the turkey 
he kept up his pursuit, shouting at the top of 
his voice. 

At the corner Jimmy sighted some other 
scouts starting on a five mile hike. He sig- 
naled them with all the authority of a patrol 
leader in his troop and they, being good scouts, 
joined in the chase. Two little girls who had 
wished for boyish adventure recognized this as 
a great opportunity and came to the throng. 

Such chasing, such climbing, such squawking 
as followed. But before long the entire six 
were back in a group in the arms of six sturdy 
scouts. “One good turn today/ ’ they informed 


164 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


Renfro, 4 4 Better let us help you get them home. ’ ’ 

And Renfro agreed. At the next corner they 
were met by a colony of colored people, the old 
washwoman gesticulating and protesting, while 
the little chap who had pursued her was also 
talking vehemently. Renfro gasped at the 
bunch. It was their evident determination to 
accompany himself and the scouts to the Horn 
residence. 

He raked his mind. And then he talked to 
Jimmy. 4 4 Mother’s club is meeting tonight/ ’ 
he said. 4 4 If this bunch would follow me home 
well— ” 

And Jimmy, the general, was quick to size up 
the situation. 4 4 Give the kid a turkey, ’ ’ he sug- 
gested. 4 4 You can’t cook them all, anyway, 
and he sure has run some. Besides he isn’t a 
scout and doesn’t have to do a good turn fox us 
other fellows.” 

So Renfro handed the little colored chap a 
turkey. And to the amazement the little col- 
ored boy and the big colored woman whom he 
had been pursuing, straightway made up all 
their differences and went away carrying the 
turkey between them. 

44 Well, Jimmy,” he laughed, 4 4 I’ll change my 
mind. He’s a good scout after all.” 


CHAPTER XVII. 


RENFRO FINDS THE MYSTERY MAN. 

L IKE a patrol of victorious soldiers, the 
Boy Scouts in khaki, with the big turkeys 
perched on their shoulders, entered the 
Hall domain from the alley entrance. Jimmy’s 
decisive “Halt!” brought them all to attention 
— all except the turkey, on the head of which 
was the responsibility for the alley episode, and 
he flapped his wings and started all the other 
turkeys to doing likewise. 

There was no law in all the list of the manual 
which told how to control a recreant turkey. 
So Jimmy forgot his dignity as a patrol leader 
and clutched one of the birds by the neck. She 
screamed no longer. But her big wings flapped, 
her body twisted, and even her tail seemed to go 
into convlusions. 

Convulsions which caught Mary Dugan’s at- 
tention as she passed by the window with a 
bowl of thousand island dressing in process of 
completion for the salad for the Hyacinth Read- 
ing Club now in session in the Horn library. 
The bowl went into the kitchen table, and Mary 


166 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


Dugan out thru the back door, across the porch, 
and right into the midst of the group. 

“The saints be praised !” Mary Dugan for- 
got what she called “The Horn Decorum” and 
reverted to her own home ways. “And now 
that you’ve surprised me by winnin’ ’em all on 
a Monday here you’re goin’ to choke ’em to 
death before I can have the pick of the one I 
want to cook.” 

She flew to the big garage door, threw it open, 
and gave stenatorian orders, “Here, — put ’em 
in here — let’em roost in peace till I’ve finished 
my supper. Then I mix ’em a bit of dough for 
refreshment followin’ a soldier party.” 

She bowed to the boy scouts and opened the 
rear gate for their departure as soon as the 
turkeys were inside the garage and the big door 
swung shut again. Her gesture was imperative. 
With Jimmy hastening them on they did not 
mark time but did “double quick” steps down 
the town’s best alley. 

Then Mary Dugan looked at Renfro, “There 
be only five,” she accused him. “You don’t 
mean to tell me all them boys let a turkey get 
loose.” 


RENFRO FINDS MYSTERY MAN 167 


44 No, Mary, ’ ’ Renfro was impatient. 4 4 It was 
really a salvage article in a worth while con- 
flict. But I’ll tell you all about it and how I 
happened to get them so soon and everything — 
new clues and all,” he promised, 4 4 only Dm late 
as the dickens with my route now and there ’ll 
be a dozen complaints and I have to go.” 

Now whatever else could he said of Mary 
Dugan the fact remained that she was always 
a good scout and without another question she 
swung open the alley gate once more, watched 
Renfro through it and shouted down the alley 
after him. 4 4 There be three kinds of cake and 
striped ice cream for the reading club. I’ll save 
all kinds for you.” 

Again Renfro chose an alley route through 
town. It was the quickest way to reach Wash- 
ington Street and the drug store. Once there 
he saw something unusual. All the packages 
of papers except his own were gone. Swish! 
That was the sound of tearing the paper which 
bound them. Clash ! They were going into his 
bag. And clatter — he was off down the street 
to the front porch of his first customer. 

Up one street, around a corner into another, 


168 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


and back and forth on it he went. It was dark, 
the thaw predicted by the weather man had set 
in early in the afternoon, and there were places 
where it was so slippery from the melting ice 
that he had to walk very slowly and carefully. 
He did not complain. Old Grief had become the 
first rung of his ladder to success. And a 
mighty good rung she had been. 

At the corner, nearing the Wier house, Ren- 
fro brushed against a stooped, old woman of 
the type usually seen around pawn shops and 
cheap restaurants. She was carrying a lot of 
bundles, but it was not these Renfro noticed. 
Around her neck with both ends flapping free 
and showing plainly in the glow from the light 
in the middle of the corner intersection was the 
peculiar looking scarf the old man whom he had 
passed outside the sandwich shop last Friday 
night had worn. 

‘ 1 Humph !” Renfro laughed at his own ex- 
clamation days later. But he was too amazed 
then to say anything else. It was possible for 
two people to have as odd scarfs as were these, 
but hardly possible he thought. And then — 
well then, he decided to do a little investigating. 


RENFRO FINDS MYSTERY MAN 169 


He sauntered a little farther down the street, 
stepped behind a tree and watched the old 
woman journey slowly down Washington street 
— still more slowly, and still more slowly, but 
always in the same direction, — the one taken 
by everyone of the queer looking individuals 
who journeyed out to the big old house, which 
everyone said wa3 haunted — everyone except 
Captain Pete who declared that claim all tom- 
foolishness. 

Renfro looked baek to his own surroundings. 
He was directly across the street from Judge 
Wier’s house. The blinds were drawn to the 
bottoms of the windows. The afternoon papers 
had said that Mrs. Wier was very despondent 
again. There had been no letter from Helen 
that day. She had declared that she knew the 
child was dead and wished that she too would 
die. 

The man in the county jail had been question- 
ed and sweated, and sweated and questioned, 
but still stuck to his original statement that he 
knew nothing about the kidnaping. Though the 
chief of police declared that it was a foolish 
waste of time the detectives were off on the 


170 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


trail of his confederates. 

“And Helen’s not two miles from this very 
spot,” Renfro declared vehemently to himself. 
4 4 And perhaps she is suffering though she wrote 
that she wasn’t. Well, I’m going out to the 
shack and the big house tonight and I’m not go- 
ing to come home until I know something much 
more definite than anything I’ve seen up to this 
time. ’ ’ 

He half ran to finish the remaining few houses 
on his route, then hurried down the road, crash- 
ed across the orchard and down to Captain 
Pete’s little cabin. Once he heard a queer sus- 
picious noise in the undergrowth just beyond 
the orchard, but he felt sure it was Lang 
Tammy come to jump on him and play a game 
of tug-of-war with his paper bag. 

Near the cabin he stopped a minute to listen. 
He looked around the corner. Everything was 
quiet. He stopped, listened intently and then 
heard voices. Two men, talking in rather loud 
tones as if they were having an argument. 
Something sounded like the thwack of a fist on 
a table and then Renfro walked to the cabin 
door. 


RENFRO FINDS MYSTERY MAN 171 


He knocked with a decisive, determined air. 
Captain Pete called out, “Who is there V 1 

But Renfro answered with another knock, 
more determined than the first. He heard the 
growl of a dog and then stopped as if some one 
had choked the creature into silence. And then 
he did a veritable tattoo of knocks on the big, 
heavy door. 

And stamping angrily across the floor Captain 
Pete came to open it. The heavy door jerked 
on its hinges with the force of an angry host 
and Captain Pete’s grizzled face seemed to fill 
the door way but not quite — 

For back in the shadow of the room sat a 
man, stooped over something — a man who was 
heavy set and short and who looked exactly like 
the stranger, whose shadow Renfro had seen 
so often on the curtain of the window at the 
big house across the deserted orchard and lane 
of Captain Pete’s domain, again on the coming 
out of the back of the restaurant stand and 
several times on Washington Street. 

“I told ye I didn’t want the paper,” Captain 
Pete growled. 

Then Renfro did the thing which surprised 


172 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


Captain Pete too much for him to realize in time 
to object to what he was doing. He stepped in- 
to the room, around the table and up to the 
stooped, old man, “Would you like to have a 
sample copy of The Globe V 9 he asked. 

The question, the boy so near him and every- 
thing, seemed to frighten the old man out of 
his self possession. He shifted his feet, shook 
his head and then raised it enough so that Ren- 
fro could see his eyes, and — 

ABOVE THEM THE OTHER HALF OF 
THE MISSING EYEBROWS. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


THREE MEN IN THE PLOT. 

O NE instant Renfro stood staring — the 
next he gave a quick jump. For, with 
a threatening growl the heavy old man 
had sprung forward, his fist raised menacingly. 
Past Captain Pete out thru the open door Ren- 
fro jumped and ran together. 

Behind him he heard the old man swearing, 
heard a loud growl, a series of barks, impera- 
tive orders ‘ ‘ Get him, Tam, * ’ and ran behind the 
first shelter which offered itself — a low old ash 
hopper, which had stood near the cabin since 
pioneer days. 

He was not afraid of the big airedale dog but 
he did have an idea that the old man — might 
shoot if he happened to be able to get hold of 
any of the arms Captain Pete kept hanging on 
the wall, all loaded as he had told Renfro, ready 
for the first rabbit which would cross his track. 

The big airedale shot around the ash hopper. 
Renfro dropped on his knees to be out of sight. 
But against Renfro he only sniffed, rubbed his 
head over his rough mackinaw and whined like 


174 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


a happy child over the joy of finding a playmate 
once more. 

From the open door came sounds of quarrel- 
ing. Renfro listened, heard Captain Pete tell 
the other man to call his dog back, that the boy 
was a friend of his and was not to be harmed. 

4 ‘But ye warned me agin’ him yourself,” the 
other growled. 

“Call yer dog back!” Captain Pete was de- 
termined. 

“I aint,” the other’s voice was dogged. 

“Then I’ll — ” there was a break in Captain 
Pete’s speech, and Renfro raised on his knees 
so that he could see the inside of the cabin. 
Captain Pete was reaching for one of his guns. 
The other man slouched toward the door and 
called gruffly. “Lang Tammy, come here, — 
come here!” 

But Captain Pete still held his gun. And 
Renfro, fearing violence on Captain Pete’s part, 
softly commanded Lang Tammy to go back into 
the house. With dragging feet and hanging 
tail the big dog obeyed his command. Once in- 
side the door, the dog gave a yelp of pain. 
Renfro rose angrily to his feet but the big door 


THREE MEN IN THE PLOT 


175 


was swung shut. 

“Well, Pll not bring any more papers here 
without observing the rule of preparedness 
first,’ ’ he declared as he crouched close to the 
fence and worked his way back to the lane again. 

He talked to himself all the way. “And one 
sure thing, Lang Tammy’s my friend. He even 
deserts his master for me. But no wonder the 
way he yelped when he went back into the cabin. 
Poor doggie.” 

At the fence he stopped. Yes, there across 
the deserted orchard in the lower west window 
of the big house was a dim light, and moving 
back and forth across the blind a dim shape. 
Some one was in the deserted house. 

Two men in Captain Pete ’s shack ! That was 
the Captain and his brother, Renfro had felt 
sure of that. But there was another in the big 
house. “There was a woman,” he remembered 
the old women who had carried the supplies 
and worn the scarf. 

Well, he would cross to the house, peep in the 
window and make sure that it was she. It 
might — 

He stopped — it might be Helen Wier shut in 


176 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


that little room, left alone in the big house while 
her captor visited at the cabin. 

But — he shook his head. That wasn’t prob- 
able. They would be afraid she might escape. 
It must be the old woman whom he had passed 
back on Washington Street. He would make 
sure. 

Cautiously, he worked his way across the or- 
chard, around the house, close to the west win- 
dow, and with his face as near the window as 
he dared place it. But hardly had he gotten it 
there until the light went out and the noise of 
footsteps told him that the person inside had 
gone across into the other room. 

With a joyous exclamation Renfro found the 
peep holes, which he had cut out a few nights 
before with his knife. Carefully, he put his 
eyes to the two holes, stared thru them, waited 
a long time, and then his watch was rewarded. 

For with great deliberation an old man, the 
exact counterpart of Captain Pete carried a 
lamp to the little table, spent much effort in ad- 
justing it, brought to the table some sort of a 
little melting pot, under which he lighted a fire 
and then moved away again. 


THREE MEN IN THE PLOT 


177 


Renfro remembered the stories he had heard 
about Captain Pete’s brother being a counter- 
feiter. Here he was, evidently getting ready 
to ply his counterfeiting trade again. The little 
melting pot, and array of instruments he was 
collecting and bringing to the table. The lamp 
under the melting pot burned dully. The old 
man tested the something in it, shook his head, 
indicating that everything was all right and 
went away again. 

When he returned he carried a large tea 
kettle, which he proceeded to settle on his knees. 
Then with the soldering he took from the pot 
on a long soldering iron he began to mend a hole 
in its side near the spout. 

It was a relieved but disappointed laugh Ren- 
fro gave. Thp old man was doing the most ordi- 
nary thing in the world — the old man who look- 
ed so much like Captain Pete that no one could 
doubt their relationship. 

Slowly Renfro journeyed down the lane to- 
ward the road, Washington Avenue and home 
again. The old lady had not been in evidence 
again. The old man in the house was a simple 
old soul whose part in the crime if he had any 


178 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


was of an unsuspecting accessory. 

Again, no doubt Captain Pete knew much, 
though he might have been innocent of any part 
of it. But the man with the missing eyebrows? 
Yes, indeed he was the fellow, and Renfro knew 
that it was up to him to move quickly and with 
well thought plans if he got him before he 
escaped. 

He rode home on the car. He was so hungry 
that he felt that his ribs were caving into his 
stomach. With home in sight his spirits began 
to soar. Mary was sure to have him a good 
warm supper and a good cold dessert to top it 
off — Mary would be ready to listen to all his 
adventures and to pat him on the back and urge 
him to greater effort. Mary was — 

And then the light outside the garage door 
went on and Mary was out there with Renfro’s 
father gesticulating, talking in loud tones, pro- 
testing against his opening the door any wider 
and trying to command and explain at the same 
time. Renfro grasped the situation in a minute. 
He rushed to Mary’s aid. 

“Don’t open it wide, Dad, or they’ll all come 
out,” he begged. “My prize turkeys you know. 


THREE MEN IN THE PLOT 


179 


They are all in the garage but the one I had 
to give the colored boy for chasing the old 
woman who would have stolen it anyway — ” 

“But I have to have my ear,” Mr. Horn was 
impatient. “And besides the garage is no place 
for these infernal birds anyway. Your mother 
had no better judgement than to tell all those 
women I would take them home in the car and 
I want it in a hurry before the lodge meeting is 
over.” 

He motioned Mary to one side and Renfro to 
the other. “Can’t you two keep them in the 
corner while I drive out.” he began. 

His hand reached the switch. A button was 
pressed and the garage was flooded with light. 
And there on the top of the big Marmon sat a 
sleepy red and bronze and black mixture of 
feathers and skin — the largest of Renfro’s prize 
turkeys. Another was on the hood, the third 
on the gasoline tank, the fourth on a wheel. 
The fifth was not in evidence. 

Not until he stepped in front of the car did 
Mr. Horn discover the whereabout of the fifth 
turkey. Silently and with a gesture which not 
only accused but did so vehemently, he pointed 


180 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


through the windshield. There on the steering 
wheel, as if guarding the wheel of state, sat the 
fifth of the big birds. 

‘‘Who ever heard 6f putting turkeys in the 
garage?” he began, “You don’t seem to have 
any sense as to the proper way of doing things. 
Your mother — ” 

“Mister Horn,” Mary was the sly, strategist 
again, “Mrs. Horn’s a waitin’ in there for this 
machine to be takin’ her company home. She’s 
got the head ache and you know — ” 

With rapidity then, the work of getting the 
turkeys into the corner huddled together and 
Mary’s guarding them, was finished. Mr. Horn 
backed the machine out. Mary and Renfro fol- 
lowed him and the door was closed. 

Outside Mr. Horn’s good humor returned. 
Mrs. Willis, the wittiest woman in the communi- 
ty, he often said and the wife of his best friend 
was on the porch. Before either Mary or Ren- 
fro realized what he was doing Mr. Horn had 
her to the garage, had showed her the turkeys 
in the corner, told her of the sight which had 
greeted him when he had opened the door and 
was laughing about the surprise he had received 


THREE MEN IN THE PLOT 181 


at the church the day before. 

Then it was impossible to keep Mrs. Willis 
out of the living room where she retold the story 
to the other members of the Hyacinth Club and 
led in the laughter which followed. She declared 
that she was bowed down with admiration for 
Renfro and wanted him brought before her. So 
out of the kitchen he was half dragged, the 
napkin Mary had fastened around his neck 
still there and the best of his supper back on the 
table melting. 

But when they were thru feteing him and 
praising him he went back to it, not the least 
minding the terrible condition in which it then 
was. For he really believed that his mother, 
excited by the admiration of the other women, 
had become proud of him. 

‘ 4 Mary Dugan,” he interrupted Mary who 
was out of sorts over the large pile of unwashed 
dishes before her. “Now if you were a fellow 
whose praise would you rather have — the fel- 
lows or your mother ’s?” 

And Mary being out of patience with all 
mothers who belonged to Hyacinth Club and 
made extra work for the “hired help” replied 
with alacrity, “Why the fellows, of course.” 


CHAPTER XIX 


RENFRO IS KIDNAPED. 

R ENFRO’S next question brought Mary 
Dugan to her feet. ‘ 1 Were there any 
Complaint calls in?” he asked. “Did 
Morrison or any one call up from the office 
or—” 

“Hooch,” Mary was herself again in spite of 
her weariness, in spite of the pile of dishes, and 
the excitement thru which she had passed. 
‘ ‘ There were several calls for you and all from 
the office, and I told them a plenty too, how 
you’d won the turkeys and had to be allowed to 
bring them home in peace, and then when they 
just kept a callin’ I just took the receiver and 
left it off the hook without paying any atten- 
tion to the buzzer till your maw heard and came 
and put it on the hook.” 

“But that settled them,” Mary’s voice was 
full of pride. ‘ 4 For none of them called again. ’ ’ 
‘ ‘ Oh, well they all got their papers all right- 
even Captain Pete,” Renfro’s voice was weary. 
“But I do hate to have a lot of complaints go 
into the office like must have gone in tonight.” 



There were two people doing the work. Renfro knew 
that, because one tied his feet while the other bound 
his hands. They worked in the hedge. 





RENFRO IS KIDNAPED 


183 


Then he remembered something else. “Did 
the minister send the addresses where he 
wanted the turkeys delivered !” 

Mary had to hear the story of the way the tur- 
keys had been won so early in the game. When 
Renfro told her that a great deal of credit was 
due her, that her going to choir practice Friday 
night made him think of the help of the church, 
she beamed at him. 

And then she told him of some new plans she 
had made for working together on the kid- 
naping mystery. The Hyacinth Reading Club 
with its extra cooking had taken all of her time 
that day. Captain Pete had gone next door 
with rabbits. The cook there had told her of 
his arrival and his departure with more than a 
half dozen of the same. 

“Now alius before he’s come here when he 
had even a rabbit left,” Mary was convinced. 
“So I know he is suspicious of us.” 

Renfro was thinking of the experiences he had 
had that night, and was making decisions. No, he 
wouldn ’t tell Mary about them yet. He wanted 
to be sure the man at Captain Pete’s was his 
man ; he wanted to see him either in daylight or 


184 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


in a light which would show his eyebrows up a 
little better. He wanted to be sure they matched 
with the missing parts. 

And then he rose land went to his room. 
Very slowly he undressed, waited until it was 
quiet below, slipped down stairs and to the 
drawer in the kitchen cupboard, in which Mary 
kept her Bible. Then he took out the two 
packages containing the missing eyebrows. 

Yes, it would be better for him to carry them 
for a few days. He might meet the man on the 
street, or in a store and after seeing him while 
memory was still strong, he wanted to compare 
with it the parts of the eyebrows which he had 
taken from the windows of Judge Wier’s home. 

He turned his trousers pockets inside out, 
then those of his coat, surveyed the motley col- 
lection in each, replaced the different articles 
in them and shook his head. His eyebrows 
would not be safe in such a lot of things as 
these. He looked around the room and then he 
saw his cap. 

With a bound he had it in his hand. The 
band inside was deep and strong and loose— all 
just the way he wanted it to be for a good 


RENFRO IS KIDNAPED 


185 


hiding place. He knew that telegraph mes- 
senger boys carried messages in their caps. 
With great care he sewed an envelope inside 
that band in which he had sealed the two 
smaller packages. 

Before he went to bed that night he did 
several little things he had wanted to do for a 
long time— wrote a letter to a chum in another 
town, counted up his balance in the bank and 
made out his Christmas shopping list. He even 
straightened his dresser, made a memorandum 
about delivering the charity turkeys, went to 
the window, and looked out at the neighborhood 
for a time. He felt queer — neither elated nor de- 
pressed, but quite as if a different sort of an 
experience from any he had known, loomed be- 
fore him. 

He was glad they had taken his picture at the 
office. If anything happened to him— 

He laughed boyishly. If he did happen to 
find the place where Helen Wier was being kept 
then they too would be glad they had his pic- 
ture. That happy thought sent him to bed and 
to sleep so fast that it was quite late when he 
awoke. 


186 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


The day seemed to rush by. His mind was 
on one thing though he heard of many others. 
His fame in winning the turkeys had spread 
thru Grant high school, thanks to Jimmy Noel 
and his crew of helpers. The teachers congrat- 
ulated him; the hoys praised him, and some of 
the girls he knew best were inclined to try to 
twit him. 

But he heardly heard them. Before him 
there loomed the big house in which the old man 
had mended the tea kettle, the cabin in which 
Captain Pete and his strange guest had 
quarreled, and the old woman, whose wearing 
the scarf had made her have some connection 
with the mystery. And always each picture 
showed to him the fierce, cruel face the old man 
assumed when his anger was aroused. 

He was early on his route that night and 
delivered all his papers with precision. Direct- 
ly after supper he was going to tell Mary the 
whole story and see if she would go with him to 
the cabin and big house once more. That was 
best he was sure. 

But he didn’t get to tell Mary. While he was 
at the supper table there was a call from the of- 


RENFRO IS KIDNAPED 


187 


fice for him— a complaint from on his route. 
He took the number, went back to the table to 
finish his dessert and to listen to his mother 
give a monologue on the dangers of carrying a 
paper route. 

Carrying complaints on such nights as this 
was sure to give him pneumonia some time she 
argued. People were careless with their pa- 
pers. No doubt the boys often left them at 
these complainers homes and then they— 

Renfro started at her charge. Why he re- 
membered now that he had left a paper at that 
number they had given him at the office. That 
was the number of the house where the little 
crippled girl sat at the window and watched 
for him— a long, low house without any paint 
and with a tin roof on the front porch, which 
roof was about in the same condition as that of 
the big house at which the mystery was deepen- 
ing. 

He went back to the telephone, called the of- 
fice, and asked for the number again. He might 
have heard wrong he thought. Exactly the 
same number was given him again. He wanted 
to tell the manager he remembered leaving the 


188 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


paper there. The little crippled girl had her- 
self opened the window that evening for it, but 
he knew that an argument would only make 
his mother more uneasy, more set against his 
continuing with Old Grief. 

Now that he had been successful she declared 
he should have a better route, his own home 
or one in the business part of town. If once she 
conferred with Mr. Bruce who had offered him 
such a route, Renfro knew it would be very hard 
for him to continue with Old Grief. 

“And,” he told himself, “I don’t want to 
leave there until I have the circulation worked 
up to 80% of the number of residents on that 
route.” 

He stepped out into the dark street, fumbled 
his way around the house to the side porch 
where his bicycle had been left, but did not 
take it. There was a puncture in the front tire 
and it was flat. He walked to the corner and 
here took a car. Car fare was a minor con- 
sideration now that he needed time. He would 
hurry back, tell Mary about the story and per- 
haps then when she had all her work out of the 
way she would go scouting with him. 


RENFRO IS KIDNAPED 


189 


He dropped off the car at the nearest corner, 
and with him the paper under his arm scurried 
down the street. Past the big house, next door 
to the little one he hurried, and then in sight of 
the one with the tin roof and the little crippled 
girl. His feet suddenly slipped on something 
which felt like a carpet of banana skins; down 
he went clutching at a hedge to break his fall, 
and then someone clutched him. 

Something strong— -it felt like a band of 
leather was passed over his mouth. Both of his 
hands were caught behind him and a sharp 
thong passed around his legs. But his eyes 
were left free. As they tied his hands behind 
his back he wondered why he had not been 
blindfolded. And a little later he learned. 

There were two people doing the work. Ren- 
fro knew that,— because one tied his feet while 
the other bound his hands. They worked in 
the hedge. 

Renfro wondered then why the city council 
had allowed all the tall hedges to stand in this 
old part of the town. Had they never seen the 
possibilities they offered to thieves and people 
like these? Evidently these men had realized 


190 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


them fully, for in giving a number from which 
to send a complaint they had chosen one next 
door to one of these hedges. 

And then he realized that one of his captors 
was a woman. She moved in front of him and 
her skirts swished against his knees. That 
discovery made him more furious than ever. 
He twisted his body, shoved with his shoulders, 
and pushed against her with all his might. 
The next minute he was firmly lifted by the 
other captor, from whose strength he knew was 
a man, carried out into the street and deposited 
on a small wagon there. 


CHAPTER XX. 


HIDDEN IN THE CAVE. 

H E WAS placed on the floor of the wagon, 
face downward. As the wagon started 
it went with a jolt which thrust his face 
against a rough board and cut his nose and 
cheek. More jerks did a series of bruises on 
his forehead, his chin and his nose. By almost 
superhuman effort he managed to roll over on 
his side and then on his back. 

By the time this was accomplished they had 
traveled down a dark road quite a distance. It 
was so dark Renfro could not see three feet 
ahead of his face at first. But his eyes soon 
got accustomed to the darkness. And little by 
little, he began to recognize the tops of the trees 
and by the feeling of surroundings to know that 
they were on the road which ran off East Wash- 
ington. 

Insinct, more than anything else, told him 
that they turned off at the second lane of the 
first on the Hall place. The first one was only 
used by pedestrians. The second was for 
wagons, but it had been used so little that it 


192 THE MISSING EYEBBOWS 


was in a horrible condition. The jolting sen- 
sation was terrible. Benfro realized that his 
face would have been cut beyond recognition 
had he not managed to turn over. 

They jolted close to trees, through a lot of 
low underbrush which ground against the 
wheels of the wagon and across a little bridge. 
The limbs on one low hanging tree struck his 
face and scratched it still more. 

The silence, which the couple had maintained 
in town and along the road, was now broken. 
The old woman, whose voice was almost as 
gruff as her companion’s complained of the way 
he drove. He in turn offered to share the privi- 
lege with her if she so desired to seize it. 

An imperative “whoa” stopped the horse, 
suddenly. The man clambered out, thrashed 
around the wagon, seemed to be tugging at a 
door. A squeaking of rustry hinges followed his 
efforts, and he called out gruffly. 4 4 Drive on in 
Maggie, and remember the log on the east side. 
You hit it the last time.” 

Benfro hoped that Maggie would not hit it 
this time. He held breath while the wagon 
jolted thru the door into a dark, dilapidated 


HIDDEN IN THE CAVE 


193 


building which was full of moldy odors. And 
there the horse stopped. He had to lie still 
while they unhitched the horse, all done in the 
darkness. They discussed the harness which 
seemed to be needing repairs from what they 
said. 

The old man told Maggie to get some food at 
a bin, but she replied that she couldn’t find it 
by just feeling around. She wanted to light 
the lantern but he wouldn’t allow her. A 
trifle crossly she refused to even try to help 
farther. And he said surlily. “If you had 
them 15 years in the darkness I did, you’d be 
able to find anything by feel.” 

After that she was more patient and seemed 
to help all she could with the finishing of the 
feeding. She came with the old man to the 
wagon, and with him while he took out a knite 
and cut the strap which tied his legs. 

“You walk with me, just as I tel] you, or 
you’ll know what you’ll get” the man’s surly 
voice was charged with a threat which Renfro 
knew he would not hesitate to keep. 

So he meekly followed his directions and 
walked between the two of them. The old worn- 


194 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


an who seemed to have a more human dis- 
position than the man, helped Renfro along by 
holding his arm. They went across decaying 
vegetable matter, through a door, close to a 
manger, and then into another room, smaller 
and close and possessing much more moldy 
odors than had the others. 

There the old man lifted some sort of a door 
in the side of what seemed to be a banked part 
of the barn and they all stepped into a place so 
dark that Renfro could not see at all. While 
the old woman closed the door, her companion 
lighted a lantern. 

For several minutes the light, though it was 
dim, blinded Renfro. Then his eyes gradually 
became accustomed to the light, and saw that 
they were in a narrow passage way. A few 
feet along it, and they came to some steps. 
They went down them— down, down, down, into 
an opening which seemed to be a cave. And 
there Renfro with his hands tied, and his mouth 
still bandaged was thrust into another and 
darker place and the door, which had been 
opened to allow him being pushed through, was 
shut again. 


HIDDEN IN THE CAVE 


195 


His first sensation was that he was on solid 
ground. Then his feet seemed to give away 
under him and he fell heavily, his head striking 
something sharp and hard. A quick pain, worse 
than any he had felt during the short ride, and 
then Renfro drifted into unconscionsness. 

When he came to, it seemed that hours had 
passed, but it had really been only a period of 
some twenty minutes. He was lying on a pallet 
of mouldy smelling rugs and comforters. They 
were full of hard knots which sent shooting 
pains through his bruised body. 

The room was not entirely dark now. There 
was a dim light and Renfro turned a little 
onto his side, saw that it came from a coal oil 
lantern, which emitted much more bad smelling 
smoke than it did light. 

The bandage had been taken from his mouth. 
But the stout cords were still on his wrists, and 
others had again been tied around his ankles. 
They were tied in such a manner that if he lay 
perfectly still they were comfortable, but if he 
twisted or attempted to move, they cut into his 
flesh like circular knives. 

But in spite of the pain caused by his moving, 


196 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


Renfro managed to twist himself until he could 
see the nature of the room in which he was im- 
prisoned. It was cold and damp and mouldy. 
Odors like those coming from a musty cellar, in 
which vegetables had long been stored, were 
strong around him. 

There was some one in the room but Renfro 
could not see who it was. Heavy, rapid breath- 
ing behind him— in the direction he felt sure 
was the door tru which he had been thrown— 
proved that. He watched directly above him 
and to the side of the room he was facing. 

And after a little looking he realized that it 
wasn’t a room at all but a cave in which he was 
a captive. The rough jagged wall and ceiling 
were of rock, from which hung stalactites now 
stained and discolored by the rain and smoke of 
fires, which had been kept burning in a rusty 
coal oil stove. 

There was a fire in the stove now, and Renfro 
was getting some heat from it. Besides it and 
the pallet, on which he was lying, Renfro could 
see no other furniture in the room. The lantern 
was flat on the floor. 

Renfro shivered. He was cold to the marrow 


HIDDEN IN THE CAVE 


197 


of his bones. He shivered again and then a long, 
hard sneeze came out of his nose and throat. It 
was followed by another of the same, and then 
a whole series. 

The person behind him stirred and came 
around the pallet until Renfro could see her— a 
swarthy, heavy set woman with a sour, disap- 
pointed visage and stooped, weary shoulders. 
Over her head she wore the odd colored scarf 
Renfro had seen twice on the street— first out- 
side the little hot dog restaurant and next on 
East Washington Street. 

She looked down at Renfro and he saw that 
her eyes were not half as hard and sour looking 
as her face. Her lips drawn in a straight line 
seemed to relax a little in their severity while 
she looked. And then she opened them and ask- 
ed one short word, “Cold?” 

“Yes, Ma’am,” Renfro sneezed again. 

With her free hand, the other was holding 
something under the scarf, she pulled the coal 
oil stove closer to his pallet and then she opened 
a door, slipped through it and closed it after her, 
and Renfro was left alone— but not for long. 
When the door opened again, it was the old man 


198 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


who entered this time, a heavy, horse blanket 
in his arms. 

On his head was the hunting cap with the 
sharp, low hanging bill. He spread the blanket 
over Renfro, gruffly asked him if he wanted 
something to eat and, after receiving a negative 
answer, squatted on the floor and looked close 
at the boy. 

And Renfro looked back at him. There was 
instant recognition on the part of both, the old 
man who had been in Captain Pete’s cabin and 
the boy who had burst in and handed him a 
sample copy of the Globe. 

For quite a time they stared at each other and 
then the old man realized that his attempts to 
frighten Renfro had failed. He gave a short- 
chuckle, which was more disagreeable than any- 
thing else, and then jerked off his cap. 

And in the dim light to which Renfro’s eyes 
had grown accustomed, was plainly visible the 
remainder of the eyebrows, half of each of which 
had been left sticking to Judge Wier’s frozen 
window pane. 


CHAPTER XXI. 


HELEN WEIR IS FOUND. 

T HE old man’s first words came in the 
form of a question. “ Where are the 
rest of ’em?” 

Renfro did not attempt to answer. To force 
an issue the old fellow was tempted to use 
gruffness but a look deep into Renfro’s steely 
blue eyes told him that would be a waste of 
time. The boy couldn’t be frightened into tell- 
ing anything. Better treat him as he would a 
man. 

“You scraped them off the window pane?” 
This time Renfro answered, “Yes.” 

“I knew some one had when I read the news- 
paper about the knife scratches, ’ ’ the old fellow 
was talking like a human being, and not in the 
gruff disagreeable tone he had used up to this 
time. To be exact he seemed to be getting some 
pleasure out of talking to some one who had re- 
cently come from town and who knew the town’s 
version of the kidnaping affair. 

“And I knew it was you,” the talker was 
measuring wits with Renfro, “as soon as I saw 


200 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


you staring at me, out at that hot dog shop.” 

His voice was triumphant. He rose from his 
half sitting, half kneeling posture and came 
over to Renfro. Turning him over roughly he 
went into his pockets, pulled out all of the con- 
tents, and carried them to the lantern. He was 
so busy examining them, that he could not see 
either the look of elation on Renfro’s face, fol- 
lowed by one of apprehension toward his cap 
which was on the floor not far from his pallet. 

With a surge of joy Renfro realized that it 
was muddy and dilapidated and torn. In that 
condition it would not receive any attention. No, 
the hiding place of the missing eyebrows was 
safe. 

The fact that his search was unsuccessful 
made the old man quite angry. He threw the 
things he had taken out of Renfro’s pockets to 
the floor, and came hack to the hoy. “You 
didn’t destroy them.” There was no question 
but just a simple statement. 

Renfro was silent. “Well you’ll tell me where 
they are and I’m goin’ to git them tomorrow.” 

Again silence. For some reason or other the 
old man did not seem to care to argue. He mere- 


HELEN WEIR IS FOUND 


201 


ly stared at Renfro, curiosity keen in his deep 
eyes. And was it imagination or did Renfro 
actually see a gleam of admiration in them as he 
stood and stared? 

The door opened and the old woman’s voice, 
now weary and fretful, put forth a question, 
4 ‘ Does he want anything to eat, Bart ? ’ ’ 

Renfro answered for himself — a curteous 
44 No, ma’am — I thank you.” 

The same voice with its touch of queerness 
mumbled something about it bein’ late, and she 
was sleepy, and for Bart to come out and leave 
the boy alone. Then Bart threw another cover 
on Renfro, took the coal oil stove in one hand, 
the lantern in the other and followed her 
through the door. 

And Renfro was left in black darkness. The 
cover on him warmed him and he began to feel 
drowsy. He was too tired to wonder what the 
folks were doing at home now that it was time 
for him to be missed, or to regret the fact that 
he had not taken time to tell Mary of the find 
he had made in Captain Pete’s cabin the night 
before. 

He didn’t wonder whether or not they would 


202 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


start a seacli for him. He was thinking of his 
route. Who would Morrison send out tomorrow 
to carry it for him? And would he find his list 
of new customers? And would they remember 
to take the three charity turkeys to the parson- 
age and — 

There was a sharp bark in the next room. 
Renfro’s heart surged with joy. He was not 
alone in the cave. He had a friend as a fellow 
prisoner. That bark came from Lang Tammy. 
And after it a girlish voice said sharply, 4 4 Can’t 
you see Tammy’s half starved to death? He 
wants milk — don’t you, Tammy?” 

And Renfro twisted until the throngs cut 
down into his flesh. That voice belonged to no 
one else but Helen Wier. She was in the cave 
too — just on the other side of the partition from 
Renfro. 

At exactly the same time Judge Wier and 
Henry Horn were in council with the detectives 
at the police station. After Renfro had gone 
an hour from the Horn home a search had been 
instituted for him. Inquiry at the Globe office 
had failed to give them any evidence except the 
number of the house from which the complaint 


HELEN WEIR IS FOUND 


203 


had been sent. 

A hurried trip out there and Mr. Horn and 
Morrison, who had come to his aid in looking for 
Renfro, discovered that the complaint call had 
been cleverly faked. Their suspicions were 
fully established. But still they did not give up 
hope. They called up all the homes of Renfro’s 
friends, they had both the house and office of 
the Globe ready to send out relief calls if Ren- 
fro should happen to appear. 

But hours passed, and there came to the two 
men no news. And then they had gone to the 
police station. Judge Wier was summoned and 
the two fathers went into close conference. 

They, with the detectives, decided that for the 
sake of their search, after both Helen and Ren- 
fro, that it was best not to let the town know of 
Renfro ’s disappearance until evening — not even 
Mrs. Horn. The detectives wanted a chance to 
start a well organized search. 

Early attempts to hunt Helen had been hin- 
dered by the crowd of people who had collected 
as soon as the news of her kidnaping had 
spread. Scores of foot tracks around the fate- 
ful house, all made by the curious persons, had 


204 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


made it impossible for footprints to furnish a 
clue. 

Cleverly Mr. Horn concocted a story for his 
wife about Renfro’s going home with Morrison 
to do some extra work, early in the morning. 
When he told her about it she was very much 
out of humor and condemned paper routes in 
biting language. 

“If she only knew the truth ,’ 9 Mr. Horn 
thought to himself and trembled. Some time 
the next day she would know the truth. 

Mary Dugan, dead tired, heard the story and 
believed it without a qualm. She was sorry Ren- 
fro had to do the extra work. That meant just 
one more day for her to feed the turkeys, which 
he had said belonged to the church. 

Morrison in turn had gone out to the Bruce 
home, and Bruce, after hearing the story, had 
gone straight to the city editor. Together they 
mapped out the course they would follow. Their 
noon edition would contain a story of the kid- 
naping — that would be their scoop, and early in 
the afternon they would send more detectives to 
help the local ones in the search. 

Then Bruce and Morrison departed to their 


HELEN WEIR IS FOUND 


205 


individual homes and went to bed. 

But neither Henry Horn nor Mary Dugan 
slept much that night. The detectives had 
assured Mr. Horn that they would soon find 
Renfro, that his kidnaping had given them def- 
inite proof that Helen Wier had been taken by 
local criminals. They would start an investi- 
gation from a new angle. 

In the morning, of course, he would not go to 
work, just seemingly do that, so as not to dis- 
turb his wife. He would show those kidnapers 
that he was not a slow man to deal with like 
Judge Wier had been. He would prove to them 
they couldn’t — 

And directly above them Mary Dugan had 
hunted her Bible, read her Golden Text for 
next Sunday and was fumbling with the family 
pictures. And then she remembered the miss- 
ing eyebrows. She opened the book at page 
222, the one next to which she had put them. 

And then she fell back with a low cry. The 
packages were gone. There was not even one 
white hair left. 


CHAPTER XXII. 


THE LIGHTS ARE REVEALED. 

M ERLE RIKER carried the names of his 
six new subscribers to Morrison’s of- 
fice only to discover that Morrison was 
out. Wearily he sat down into the big chair to 
wait. He had accomplished what had seemed to 
him impossible a few days before. And he want- 
ed Morrison’s approval. And after that he 
wanted Renfro Horn’s. 

“He taught me how to do it,” Merle had 
told Jimmie Noel on his way to the office. 
“Renfro Horn is a good sport.” 

“He’s a good scout,” Jimmie added soberly, 
“And that reminds me. I haven’t seen Renfro 
all day. Let’s go out there tonight and have 
a talk with him.” 

Merle promised. “My mother doesn’t care 
for me being out at nights when I’m with a boy 
like Renfro Horn, ’ ’ he explained. i ‘ Meet at the 
corner drug store?” 

Jimmie had agreed to that meeting place. 
Just as soon as Morrison came, Merle decided he 
would rush home, announce to the Riker family 


THE LIGHTS ARE REVEALED 207 


they had a Thanksgiving turkey, eat a hurried 
supper and come back to the meeting place and 
then go to the Horn home. 

But Morrisson didn’t come. The clock struck 
six-thirty, seven, and then Merle rose. 
He went straight to the corner drug store, met 
Jimmie, and took him home with him. So 
Jimmie heard Merle’s announcement about the 
Thanksgiving turkey and witnessed the joy it 
created. And as soon as Merle had eaten his 
supper they started back to the Horn residence. 

But there they faced another disappoint- 
ment. Mary Dugan told them Renfro wasn’t 
home, was still out on his route and that they 
could walk out to meet him if they wanted to 
see him. 

“She isn’t cross usually,” Jimmie volun- 
teered. “But she’s tired out or something. 
Usually it’s as Hooch says, ‘Mary Dugan is the 
best scout of them all.’ ” 

Together the two boys walked out toward 
East Washington Street, but though they 
watched every corner and every car they 
didn’t see Renfro. “Might as well give it up,” 
Merle was disappointed, ‘ ‘ and go home. I ’ll tell 


208 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


him in the morning . 9 9 

“ We’re near the Globe office,” Jimmie of- 
fered. “We might go past and stop in to see 
if Morrison’s back. You’d like to tell him, if 
he’s there — wouldn’t you?” 

They went to the carrier’s room, found it 
empty but the door to Morrison’s was ajar. 
Jimmie started toward it and stopped, his at- 
tention suddenly riveted by voices he heard. 
“But his mother must not know.” It was Mr. 
Horn talking. 

He recognized Bruce answering. Morrison 
too chimed in. And little by little Jimmie 
learned the whole story — of how Renfro had 
been kidnaped, of how they were keeping it a 
secret and of how they hoped in this way to 
get a quicker solution of the kidnaping mystery. 

Jimmie, when he learned all the particulars, 
pushed Merle back out onto the street again. 
“How much did you hear?” he there demanded. 

“Not enough to understand anything except 
that Renfro has been kidnaped, too, just like 
Helen Wier,” Merle was inclined to be gloomy, 
“and they were both my friends.” 

“And we’re not to tell a word we heard,” 
Jimmie caught Merle’s arm and shook him. “Do 


THE LIGHTS ARE REVEALED 209 


you understand? Telling this would hurt Ren- 
fro. It would lessen their chances to find him. 
We’ve got to keep still and — ” 

“Help find him,” Merle answered, the steel 
in his eyes shining so that Jimmie could see it 
as he never had before. 

Jimmie Noel stopped. ‘ ‘ Wait,” he com- 
manded, “Wait a minute. I have to think.” 

For fifteen minutes Merle waited. Then 
Jimmie drew him toward the corner. ‘ ‘ Can you 
stay out very late?” he asked. “It may be all 
night. I have an idea. It may be nothing and 
again it may reveal to us where and how Renfro 
was kidnaped. Can you go out to ‘ Twin Cedar 
Cabin’ with me? And stay all night?” 

Merle nodded. “I’ll call mother. If I tell 
her we’re going out there to see Renfro, she’ll 
be all right,” he explained, “and that is what 
we are going to do if he’s there — isn’t it?” 

“You bet!” Jimmie’s spirits were soaring, 
“I’ll telephone, too. And I’ll tell Jack Burton 
we ’re going. I won ’t tell him about Renfro but 
I’ll ask him to go along. He has some sense 
and he may help out some.” 

They separated and a little later they met, 


210 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


having deemed it more safe to use different 
telephones. “ Jack can’t go,” Jimmie explained. 
“His brother raised a row against him going 
and so he has to stay at home.” 

On the way out to the camp, Jimmie explained 
many things to Merle — of how when the cabin 
had been purchased and he had heard the story 
of the two chiefs who had fought for the hand 
of the pretty white girl, he and one of the young 
scout masters had decided to add to the lure of 
the place for all good scouts. They had gone 
out secretly and dug two graves, burying two 
old skeletons which had been in the trash room 
of the high school. 

“It wasn’t hard to believe those skeletons be- 
longed to Indians,” Jimmie laughed, “so we 
named the graves those of Wampum and Big 
Eagle.” 

And then he told about the odd lights which 
they had seen on the nights they had been there. 
“Now I was suspicious,” he added, “and began 
to study ways those lights might have been 
made. And I just discovered the other day. 
Someone who wanted to keep anyone away from 
that cabin could have placed a number of batter- 


THE LIGHTS ARE REVEALED 211 


ies there and then operate them from quite a dis- 
tance. I believe that is just what someone is 
doing. ’ ’ 

He drew a deep breath. “ Every time any 
of the fellows go out to the cabin to stay all 
night they watch for the lights and they are not 
disappointed about seeing them either. So it 
stands to reason that they are being operated 
to keep scouts away from that cabin. Now, 
tonight we’ll lay for those fellows. I have a 
hunch we’ll find a fellow who is connected with 
Renfro ’s kidnaping. ’ ’ 

Merle listened while Jimmie made his plans. 
They would go to the cabin, light the lamps, and 
build a roaring big fire in the fire place. Then 
Merle would stay in the cabin while he — Jimmie 
would go to the graves, hide near there and 
watch for some sign of life. 

They reached the cabin safely. The lamps 
were lighted, the fire made, and then Jimmie 
slipped out of the cabin. A little later, Merle, 
following directions, extinguished the lamps 
and crept to the window. 

He looked down toward the mounds. And 
soon his watch was rewarded. Violet and blue 


212 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


lights alternately played over the graves. They 
left for a little while and then they came back. 
For about fifteen minutes they lingered this 
time and then they suddenly went dark again. 

Merle waited. Minutes passed, and then 
longer minutes. But the lights did not come 
back. Nor did Jimmie. This was a hard wait for 
Merle. He began to wonder if anything could 
have happened to Jimmie. He had been told 
before Jimmie left not to dare leave the cabin 
but just stay there and watch. Something of 
unusual importance might happen right there. 

And just as he was about to throw Jimmie’s 
commands to the winds and leave the cabin to 
search for him, Jimmie appeared. He was a 
ruffled, muddy Jimmie. 4 ‘Great Scott!” he 
ejaculated, “I was never so disgusted in my 
life. If I hadn’t had that club in my hand and 
given them a dozen or more healthy raps I 
would feel like batting my head in the hope I 
could get some more brains into it. ’ ’ 

He went to the fireplace and sat down. “It 
was just as I thought,” he said. “Those lights 
came from electric batteries. Only they be- 


THE LIGHTS ARE REVEALED 213 


longed to the high school boys who want this 
cabin. They tried to get it when the scouts got 
it but we had the most money. Jack Burton’s 
brother led the gang. Whenever Jack would 
start out here they would come and operate 
their battery system. They thought they would 
scare us out pretty soon.” 

Merle was quite as disappointed as Jimmie. 
He came over and sat down beside him. “I ran 
into the whole nest of them,” Jimmie contin- 
ued, “and I knocked them right and left with 
my club. I think they thought I was a score 
of scouts for they ran — FROM ONE BOY,” he 
laughed. 

Merle laughed with him. “But that doesn’t 
help us with Renfro,” he began suddenly. 

“No,” Jimmie shook his head, “Poor old 
Hooch! Wouldn’t he have liked to be in on this 
tonight?” 

Later they snuggled up in their blankets and 
went to sleep. And when it was morning they 
soberly went back to town, both of them with 
one great determination and one secret in their 
minds. They were going to keep still about 
Renfro Horn ’s being gone and at the same time 


214 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


they were going to help hunt him. 

4 4 Tonight, Pm going to walk over his route 
after I carry mine,” Merle assured Jimmie, 
“and hunt out every suspicious looking person 
on it. Want to go along f ’ ’ 

“Yes, sir,” Jimmie was emphatic. 

“And keep still all day?” 

“You bet !” Jimmie’s lips went close together. 

“Then tonight at six o’clock,” Merle had the 
last word, “and meet me at Flaherty’s butcher 
shop.” 


CHAPTER XXIII. 


HELEN TALKS TO KENFBO. 

R ENFRO awoke early the next morning. 
The room of the cave in which he was 
confined was dark and the air seemed 
colder, more mouldy than on the night before. 
He wished that they had left the foul smelling 
lantern in his room, though the evening before 
he had hoped it would be removed. 

His wrists and ankles felt numb. Last night 
they had ached for quite a long time. He de- 
cided while he lay alone in the dark that when 
Bart or Maggie came in he would ask them to 
ease the cords a bit. But when, after more 
than an hour, the old man, still wearing the 
low brimmed cap and surly air of the night 
before, came into the room Renfro decided not 
to even mention the tightness of the cords. 

It was the same smoking, ill smelling lantern 
of the night before that he swung in his hand. 
He set it down near the bed, looked at Renfro, 
and then felt of the cord around his wrist. “Not 
so bad as that — not that bad, though it was a 
long time,” he muttered to himeslf. 


216 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


He rose heavily and fumbled his way through 
the door back into the other room. This time 
as he had done every time before he closed the 
door after him. “No use doing that,” Renfro 
thought, “I’ve already heard Helen’s voice.” 

The old woman came back with him. She 
carried a bowl of steaming stew in which onions 
were one of the principal ingredients. That was 
evident from the odor. And with it were several 
slices of toasted bread. 

“Do you want some coffee?” 

Renfro decided that her voice was not gruff 
through a habitual bad disposition but exposure 
and poor food and it might have been suffer- 
ing. He forced a smile when he assured her 
that he would rather have some milk if she 
could give him some.” 

“After a while,” she promised, “presently 
when I go up to the grocery.” 

When it was evident that he was going to 
eat the stew, the old man helped him raise him- 
self to a sitting posture. Then he cut the cords 
on his wrists. “Now eat,” he said and spoke 
without any surliness. “And when the door is 
fixed a little more you won’t he tied any more.” 


HELEN TALKS TO RENFRO 217 


A grim smile came onto his face. “You are 
too smart a boy to have loose for a time,” he 
said. 

Renfro was interested in the way he spoke. 
At least it was evident from what he said that 
he was to be kept in captivity quite a time. 
While he ate the stew which was not a disagree- 
able mess, he wondered what sort of confusion 
was raging back in Lindendale. Would the de- 
tectives decide that it was a kidnaping plot? 
Would they set out on another trip to a far off 
city for more evidence? 

He was sure they would not do that. There 
was Mary, who had shared with him conjec- 
tures concerning the identity of the owner of 
the missing eyebrows. She would tell them 
about the trips to Captain Pete’s, to the big 
house, and from there he was sure it would be 
easy for detectives to work their way to the 
old barn. 

He smiled contentedly and ate on until the 
bowl was almost empty. If he had known that 
Mary thought him safe at the home of one of 
his friends, that his mother believed the same, 
that full charge of the secret investigation had 


/ 


218 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


been given over to the detectives he would have 
been discouraged to the despair point. 

After he was through eating, old Bart fasten- 
ed new bandages, much wider but stronger than 
the others on his wrists. But they were a dis- 
tinct advantage, for they did not hurt half as 
badly as had the others. And when he had 
changed the narrow ones around his ankles to 
the wide variety, Renfro, though far from being 
in a pleasant posture, was not uncomfortable. 

As soon as they made the discovery that he 
was going to be agreeable and not cry or abuse 
them over his imprisonment, the old couple be 
came much less hostile. Renfro knew from their 
attitude that they did not want to hurt or 
punish him — but merely to keep him shut up 
until they had made some plans concerning 
Helen Wier. 

“Well if it’s money they’re after, they’ll 
sure ask dad for some too, as soon as they 
discover who I am,” he began to think and 
then remembering Mary, decided that they 
wouldn’t get far with their plans before they 
were discovered. 

After promising to bring him something to 


HELEN TALKS TO RENFRO 219 


read the old man took up the dilapidated lan- 
tern and followed his wife, who had gone back 
into the other room several minutes before. 
Renfro heard him lock the door between the 
two rooms of the cave; and later gave some 
commands to his wife and Lang Tammy, who 
was once more in the cave. 

Though the lantern was gone the cave was 
not so dark as it had been. Renfro moved until 
he discovered the source of the light. It came 
from over the top of an old door — the one, he 
felt sure — that the old man had spoken about 
nailing more firmly before he should be turned 
loose. 

He twisted at his thongs. They were tied too 
tight to ever be torn loose. He tried them with 
his teeth but they were too tough for him to 
make more than an impression on them. And 
making impressions would only harm him, for 
once discovered they would be responsible for 
closer watch than ever being put over him. 

Quietly he lay back on his pallet and waited. 
In the other room they were talking in muffled 
tones. A long conversation followed, a bustling 
noise, and then silence. 


220 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


And finally out of it came a voice which Ren- 
fro knew. “Who is in there ? ’ ’ it demanded. 
“Is it any one who knows me? I’m Helen 
Wier.” 

Renfro could have shouted for joy. “I’m 
Renfro Horn,” he answered. “Where are they 
gone?” 

“Up town,” Helen was just outside the 
locked door. “I’m not tied like they say you 
are, but I’m locked in. Tell me everything you 
know — about mother and father and everything. 
And why don’t they find me?” 

Renfro had to pitch his voice loud and make 
it peculiarly piercing to reach her through the 
heavy door and the big room of the cave. He 
told her of everything he knew, how her letters 
had reassured her mother and kept her well. 

“Yes, they let me write them,” Helen’s 
voice seemed changed, more piercing, more 
strident. Renfro decided that it was from her 
life in the cave. “They’re not mean to me — 
and they don’t want money. They’re keeping 
me, to get even with father.” 

Quietly and without any emotion she told 
her story. Bart had been sentenced to fifteen 


HELEN TALKS TO RENFRO 221 


years in the penitentiary by her father years 
ago. He had served most of those fifteen long 
years which had meant separation from his 
family. While there he brooded over the lone- 
liness of himself and became almost a maniac, 
with one purpose in mind — namely to get even 
with the judge who had sentenced him. 

At first he had decided to kidnap the judge 
himself. He had kept that thought in mind for 
years. When his old cellmate had gone free 
one day and they had given him another he had 
been given a chance to plan for the future, Cap- 
tain Pete ’s brother had been put in his cell and 
he, in time, told of his home, of his crime, and 
the hidden cave in which he and his confederates 
had at first made the counterfeit money. 

Getting bolder the counterfeiters had moved 
into the cellar of the big house and been dis- 
covered. But only the part of the story which 
was concerned with the cave had interested 
Bart. From that time on he made his plans. As 
soon as he was free he would come back to Lin- 
dendale, kidnap Judge Wier and imprison him 
for months in this hidden cave. Separation from 
his family for that time would give him just 


222 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


a hint of what Bart had served on account of 
his sentence. * 

“Maggie told me all this,” Helen put her 
lips close to the key hole for her throat was 
getting tired through talking so loud. “She 
wants me to know all of it so that when they 
let me back to father I can tell him all of it 
and understand exactly how and why Bart got 
been given a chance to plan for the future. Cap- 
even with him.” 

“But isn’t Captain Pete m it?” Renfro per- 
sisted in asking a question though Helen was 
still talking. 

“No, neither he nor his brother. They just 
happened to discover the cave and then they 
knew where I had been hidden. They’re afraid 
of Bart. They won’t ever tell until I’m safe 
back home and Bart and Maggie are away and 
safe in another part of the country, and happy 
because they’ve had revenge.” 

She talked a little while longer about the 
life in the cave. She and Renfro conjectured 
together on the probable time they would be 
imprisoned. And Renfro didn ’t tell her of Mary 
Dugan’s knowledge of all his clues and his 


HELEN TALKS TO RENFRO 223 


hope of rescue from her. A surprise he decided 
would be a good thing for Helen Wier. 

After a time they, following Helen’s fear 
that the old woman would return, lapsed into 
silence. Renfro sat and studied the door around 
which came in small shafts of light. Now if 
he could only manage to get loose before that 
door was made more secure he felt that he 
could work his way through the door. But if — 

And in the other room there came confusing 
sounds. Bart and Maggie had returned, and a 
scuffling and barking and cavorting around 
told him that they had brought with them Lang 
Tammy. 


CHAPTER XXIV. 


LANG TAMMY HELPS BENFBO ESCAPE. 

O LD Bart, true to Ms promise, brought 
Renfro a book and the lantern to furnish 
him light for the reading. Maggie, also 
considerate, had polished the lantern shade, 
until now it gave a light which made the cave 
a definite room and was bright enough that 
Renfro could easily read. 

But first he looked around the room. The 
stalactites, wMch had been specters in the half 
darkness, became things of beauty in the bright 
light. Renfro had heard that there were lime- 
stone deposits in the ground under the Hall 
farm. Now he was sure of it. Why tMs cave 
was very beautiful and full of promise. 

“If old Jake-— ” Helen had told him the 
name of Captain Pete’s brother — “had only 
known it,” he thought, “there was a wealth 
on his own land much larger than any he could 
counterfeit during a lifetime.” 

Bart was examining the lock on the door. He 
had brought in with him a package which when 
opened revealed another lock that he tried to 


LANG TAMMY HELPS RENFRO 225 


adjust. But it was soon evident from his swear- 
ing that the new one was too small for the door. 

Carefully the old man wrapped it up. Angry 
over his failure he turned upon Renfro. “You 
needn’t be grinding,” he said, “I’ll get a better 
one this afternoon.” 

By slipping over on his stomach and with 
his hands under him Renfro could manage to 
read out of the book of pioneer stories Bart 
had fetched from the Hall library. He turned 
the pages with his tongue. But between pages 
he thought hard. If he could get loose by hook 
or crook he could get that old door open he 
was sure. 

He remembered the story he had read in the 
detective magazine of a very wiry man who 
had managed to use a knife with his teeth. In 
Renfro’s pocket had been a sharp knife. Bart 
had taken it out. Had he carried it away or left 
it with the other things on the floor? 

“While he’s gone this afternoon I’ll roll over 
there and see,” Renfro made his plans definite- 

iy- 

A little later Maggie brought him his dinner, 
milk and other things she had considered deli- 


226 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


cacies which a boy of Renfro’s breeding was 
sure to like. She was unusually kind and Ren- 
fro felt sorry that she should be so deluded as 
she was. 

He was so restless that he could hardly wait 
until Bart should start away again and he could 
roll over after the knife. That would take time 
•and he must be free from the fear of discovery. 
He breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Bart 
begin to make preparations to leave. He heard 
Maggie argue with him about some things she 
wanted from her little home, back in town. 

Bart refused to go after them, telling her 
that if she wanted them badly enough she would 
go herself. And after a little while she decided 
to go along. Better and better Renfro decided. 
Now he could do his work with alacrity, per- 
fectly safe from any fear of discovery at all. 

Bart came in after the lantern, carried it out, 
refilled it and brought it back. This time he 
left the door slightly ajar and while he was at 
work Renfro saw a big form slip in, crawl into 
the fartherest corner and lay there. It was 
Lang Tammy and he was hiding because of the 
whipping Maggie had given him for tearing 


LANG TAMMY HELPS RENFRO 227 


the binding on her coat. 

Not until they were gone did Renfro call 
Lang Tammy and then he came, crawling and 
pleading exactly like a dog which has recently 
been beaten. But as he reached Renfro and 
made sure that it was his friend he became 
joyous and barked joyfully and frantically. 
And then he made ready for a game of tug. 

Joyously he seized one end of the free ban- 
dage on Renfro’s hands. He gave it a pull 
which cut into the boy’s wrists cruelly. Another 
pull, another cut, and Renfro tried to stop him. 
But the big dog was intent on the game which 
was now a winning one for him. Another tug, 
this time a long tearing one, and something 
slipped, the knot the old man had tied so firmly 
that morning. Renfro jerked at his hands and 
Tammy was onto the bandage again. 

And then it came loose. Renfro could have 
hurrahed from joy. Instead he rolled over 
quickly to his pile of articles taken from his 
pocket, found his knife, cut the thongs around 
his legs and stood tottering, his legs stiff and 
aching. With a bound he was to the door work- 
ing at the lock. Indeed it was old and rusty. 


228 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


It gave way before his onslaught and he stood 
free to go out into the open. 

He flew back to the other door. 4 ‘ Helen/ ’ he 
called softly, “I’m free and you ’ll be in a little 
while. If they come back before help comes, be 
sick or do anything you can to keep them inter- 
ested and away from my door. 

Outside he stood in a new world which he 
soon identified as being the thicket below the 
hill on the Hall farm. He found the lower road 
and fairly flew to the edge of town, boarded a 
waiting car and rode directly to the office of 
the Globe. 

The big building looked like paradise to him. 
Straight through the outer door, into the hall 
and back to the door marked ‘ ‘ Route Manager, 
Morrison,’ ’ he hurried. And inside it he fell 
into Morrison’s arms. 

“That wasn’t a complaint, Morrison!” he 
burst out. “That was a fake call! I went — ” 

“You— Hooch, you — you!” Morrison gasped 
like a drowning man, seized Renfro, and half 
carried, half dragged him into Circulation Man- 
ager Bruce’s office. The office was deserted 
except for that worthy and his stenographer. 


LANG TAMMY HELPS RENFRO 229 


He looked up at the confusion, jumped to his 
feet and caught Renfro in the curve of his arm. 

And to him Renfro began his story once more. 
“That wasn’t a complaint call last night at all. 
It was just a fake. I was kidnaped. It was a 
cave. And I found Helen Wier and — and” 

“You found Helen Wier?” Bruce shouted 
his question. Then before it could be answered 
he had dragged him to the door. And there he 
decided that the boy was not going fast enough. 
Up into his arms he lifted him. Through the 
hall to the elevator cage he went, Morrison fol- 
lowing. 

“Car up!” Bruce was still shouting. “Can’t 
wait.” 

Up the steps he ran. At the landing he ducked 
but Renfro’s head struck the ceiling a hard 
whack, in spite of that, Renfro merely winced. 
At the top of the steps Bruce made a sharp 
turn, rushed against the door marked “Man- 
aging Editor” and threw it open with the 
weight of his big body. 

Morrison, puffing and trying to obtain an- 
swers to a whole chain of questions he was 
hurling at Renfro, still perched perilously near 


230 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


the top of Bruce ’s shoulders, followed. He saw 
Bruce drop Renfro, grab a little man who was 
having a discussion with Mr. North, The Globe’s 
managing editor, pull him to the door, shove 
him through and then lock the door after him. 

4 4 What in the — ” North jumped to the floor, 
scattering proof sheets in all directions. 

4 4 What — ” 

The little man who had been forcibly ejected 
was beating and pounding his protest on the 
panels of the big oak door but Bruce didn’t 
mind him. 4 4 North,” he jerked North so that 
he faced Renfro, 4 4 This is Renfro Horn.” 

4 4 And” Morrison would not be ignored, 4 4 he 
has found Helen Wier.” 

4 4 When — where — how?” North was all edi- 
tor. 

4 4 In a cave! I was there too. They kidnaped 
me last night,” Renfro burst out. 4 4 She’s there 
now ! Locked in ! Bart and Maggie are up town. 
Let’s get her before they come back.” 

North pushed Morrison toward the door. 
4 4 Get a taxi,” he ordered,” and keep your 
mouth shut.” 

He jerked open his desk, took his revolver 


LANG TAMMY HELPS RENFRO 231 


from a drawer and thrust it in his pocket. Five 
steps carried him to the locked door. He jerked 
it open, breaking the lock. “Warriner,” he 
called. 4 4 We’re making a trip. Big story! Ex- 
tra edition! Get the presses ready for it. I’ll 
take Figg with me.” 

The man sitting at the table on the front of 
which was printed “City Editor,” jumped to 
his feet. “Figg!” he bawled, “Figg!” 

While they waited North demanded Warri- 
ner ’s revolver and handed it to Bruce. “You’re 
going too,” he said. 

Figg came out of the cubby hole which bore 
the name Sporting Editor — big, burly and ag- 
gressive in every step and gesture. No one 
ever mentioned a gun to Figg. With the first 
word of “Big story,” he had his gun out of 
his desk and in his pocket. 

No one mentioned elevator this time. They 
made their descent down the steps. Through 
the hall, a curious crowd stopping at sight of 
the odd procession, they rushed. Morrison out- 
side had the taxi door open and into it they 
sprang, Bruce, North, Figg and Renfro. Mor- 
rison thinking that he was to be left behind 


232 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


clung to the running board. 

Renfro’s directions were shouted to the driver 
by North. Out of town, breaking all traffic 
rules they went. A sharp turn by the tile fac- 
tory took them down the river road. Beyond 
it they rode a few yards, made another turn, 
jolted up a deserted lane and came to an ab- 
rupt stop. 

Around the shrubbery to the passage to the 
open door Renfro led them. Inside the room 
Lang Tammy sat in a dejected attitude. Brist- 
ling every hair he jumped at the intruders, saw 
Renfro and sprang on him with a joyful bark. 

But a girlish voice sounded above all the 
confusion. “ Renfro, have them hurry! It’s 
time for Maggie and Bart any minute.” 


CHAPTER XXV. 


THE GLOBE GETS A SCOOP. 

N OT until the taxicab turned into Elm 
Street back in town once more did 
Helen Wier speak. She simply crouched 
in one corner of the taxicab and stared out of 
the window. There she clutched at Figg’s arm. 
“That’s my street,” she pointed at the one 
they left. “I have to see my mother right 
away. I do,” she was emphatic, jerking his 
arm savagely, “I do!” 

Then North became the cunning editor. “Not 
immediately,” he spoke in conciliatory tones. 
“The shock would kill her. She had to be pre- 
pared. We’ll attend to that at the Globe office.” 

Renfro stared at Helen. How white and thin 
she looked ! Her voice had sounded hollow back 
there in the cave. Now as he afterwards de- 
scribed it, she looked hollow, too. Leaning 
against his knees, Lang Tammy was staring up 
at him with happy eyes. From time to time he 
kissed his hand and gave Figg hostile growls. 

Everything at the Globe was waiting for 
them. Outside a long line of newsboys was wait- 


234 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


ing for the extras to be shot through the presses 
and out to them on the street in a few minutes. 

A crowd of girls from the business office 
stared through the windows at the motley pro- 
cession. The elevator man, watching outside 
his cage, rushed in again and seized the lever. 
They shot up to the editorial floor and rushed 
into the room where Warriner had his star 
writer at his machine and his copy boys ready. 

He looked at the crowd. “Shoot!” he com- 
manded. “The girl first.” 

And Helen Wier encouraged by North told 
her story in weary, strained gasps. “I was in 
the library alone reading that night. I heard 
a noise. There was somebody in the room. He 
had a gun pointed at me. He said he would kill 
me if I screamed. He said there was some one 
in the other room who would kill my mother if 
1 didn’t come with him. His forehead was 
bleeding. Something was wrong with his eye- 
brows — ” 

“Oh, yes,” Renfro jumped forward and jerk- 
ing off his cap, turned down the band of his 
cap. “His eyebrows were missing. They froze 
to the window pane. He jerked them off and 


THE GLOBE GETS A SCOOP 235 


I found them on the pane. That’s how I found 
Helen.” 

North jerked him over to one side. “Your 
time next,” he commanded, and nodded at 
Helen. 

“Outside the house, he made me walk into 
the shrubbery. I was afraid they would shoot 
my mother.” Helena tone was full of worry. 
“They didn’t — did they?” 

“No, no, she’s safe,” North clipped out his 
words. 

The typewriter stopped its clicking. The 
feature writer rolled out one sheet, Warriner 
grabbed it and another one was in its place. 

“Shoot!” 

Warriner gave the command again. “They 
gagged me then. A woman helped him. She 
was Maggie. And they put me in a wagon. We 
rode miles. It was cold and I didn’t have any 
coat — just an old rug they put around me. We 
went through some buildings. And then down 
into the cave.” 

It was Eenfro whom North asked to give a 
description of Bart and Maggie. He told his 
own story first — of the first night he had seen 


236 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


the stranger peering into the Wier home, the 
second experience, his attempt to telephone the 
Judge, of the line out of order, and then of 
his finding the eyebrows frozen to the window 
pane. 

The reporters moved closer to him while he 
talked. North interrupted to ask questions. 
Warriner gave orders to copy boys, to the 
writers at their machines, through a telephone 
to the press room through it all managed 
to hear every word of the story. 

When Renfro at the close of his story again 
took off his cap, pulled down the band and ex- 
hibited his specimens — The Missing Eyebrows 
— carefully opened one of the square packages 
and took one look, held it to North, and then 
handed it to one of the men. 4 4 Have them photo- 
graphed and a plate made,” he ordered. 

And then he was down to the press room. 
North once more took command — got more de- 
tailed stories from both Renfro and Helen, had 
half a dozen reporters writing at once — descrip- 
tions of the cave, of the rooms there, of Maggie 
and Bart and then one of Lang Tammy who 
was still by Renfro’s side, his nose firmly 


THE GLOBE GETS A SCOOP 237 


clutched by one of the boy’s muscular hands. 

There was a shout below. Morrison and 
Bruce both jumped. “The papers off the 
press” the reporter nearest the chute yelled 
and North turned to Helen, “get ready to go 
home,” he said kindly, “I’ll telephone your 
mother.” 

“Telephone mine,” for the first time Renfro 
remembered his parents. “I can’t get home and 
back before it’s time to carry my route.” 

North motioned to the cub reporter. “Tell 
Bruce to send some other boy out on Horn’s 
route tonight,” he commanded. “I want to 
take Horn home myself.” 

The trip down the stairway was made more 
slowly this time. North noticed that Renfro was 
limping. He reached out his hand and steadied 
him. “Best story of the year,” he muttered. 
“And we scooped them all.” 

And Renfro understood him. But he didn’t 
say anything except to nod at Lang Tammy. 
“I’m going to keep him,” he said, “I wonder 
if they’ve got Bart and Maggie yet.” 

“Figg will tend to them,” North smiled. “I 
sent him back with some of the boys to get the 


238 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


story for the next edition.’ ’ 

At the door his editor’s mantle seemed to 
drop. He looked first at Helen and then at 
Renfro. He had several children out at his 
home. “ You ’re great kids!” he grinned. 

But there was a volume in that grin and both 
of them realized it. In the taxi he was quite 
as laconic. “Your folks will about die! I 
talked to both of your dads.” 

Yet it was Helen’s mother who was waiting 
on the porch when the taxi drove up in front 
of the Wier home. She rushed down the walk 
as Helen rushed toward the house. Half way 
they met. 

North turned his head. But he heard Mrs. 
Wier talking. She had taken Renfro’s hand. 
The tears from her eyes dropped on it but she 
talked bravely, and in a collected manner, giv- 
ing him the greatest eulogy he had ever re 
ceived. 

The judge too talked to the boy, as one man 
does to another. Helen left her mother’s arm 
to come over to him. ‘ i But you won ’t be hard 
on Bart, daddy,” she begged. “You — see — 
now — we know — how — cruel — it — is to be away 


THE GLOBE GETS A SCOOP 239 


from the people we love.” 

Judge Wier nodded his head. He looked up 
at North. “I will attend to them,” he smiled, 
“but still I feel it would not be best to quote 
me on that. Just say that I shall not be too 
harsh on these people.” 

Mrs. Wier nodded. Then she looked at Ren- 
fro. “His mother is waiting,” she said. 

And North took Renfro back to the taxi in 
which Lang Tammy was waiting. As they 
crossed town, Renfro nodded toward the street. 
“This is my route,” he said. “They call it Old 
Grief.” 

“The turkey route,” North laughed. “We’re 
going to use that story tomorrow in our Thanks- 
giving number.” 

He nodded at some of the dilapidated build- 
ings on a cross street. “Want to change it?” 
he asked. 

“No sir!” Renfro’s answer was emphatic. 

Mary Dugan was standing out close to the 
curbing, a clean white apron tied around her 
expansive waist. Her hand reached out and 
grasped Renfro’s with all the force a man gives 
an obstinate pump handle. And she shook it 


240 THE MISSING EYEBROWS 


manfully. 

Now, Mary Dugan was of the kissing type, 
but she respected manhood. And in fifteen min- 
utes Renfro had grown from a boy to a man 
in her estimation. Nor did she weep though 
she had shed copious tears when she had heard 
the story. 4 4 1 missed them eyebrows last night, ’ ’ 
she said “and I’ve dressed both of them tur- 
keys which was left. The three charity ones 
I carried out to the preacher’s parsonage my- 
self. I told them to eat one themselves, as he 
did the free advertisin’ for you.” 

Proudly she led the way to the house after 
she had delivered her speech. Renfro’s mother 
caught him in her arms in the most genuine, 
motherly embrace he had known for a long 
time. She sobbed and sobbed and could not 
talk. But he knew without her saying a word 
how happy she was. 

Mr. Horn laughed nervously to North. I’ve 
been through Hell a thousand times during the 
last twenty-four hours,” he said. “But thank 
Heaven I had the courage to go through alone. 
I never told my wife a word about Renfro’s 
being gone until you told me that he was safe. 


THE GLOBE GETS A SCOOP 241 


She thought he was visiting.” 

He managed a few fatherly hugs in spite of 
his wife ’s constant clinging to Renfro. His eyes 
were charged with love and beyond that a look 
of pride. He started to say something directly 
to Renfro about his feelings but with a great 
effort Renfro managed to wriggle out of his 
mother ’s arm and start toward the dining room. 

“Where are you going, Hooch?” Mary Du- 
gan sprang to her feet with the suspicion in 
her mind that Renfro was hungry. 

But Renfro waved her aside. “I’m going to 
call up the office,” he returned. “I want to 
find out of Morrison if there have been any 
complaints on my route.” 

THE END. 

The next Renfro Horn book will be 


THE LUCK OF THE RAINY NIGHT 
















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THE LUCK OF A RAINY NIGHT 
or 

Renfro Horn Wins the $10,000 Reward 

In this second book of the Renfro Horn 
series of Newspaper Boys’ stories, Renfro Horn 
wins the enmity of the carrier on Route No. 19, 
because Renfro is held up as a model carrier by 
the Circulation management of the Globe. 

And on the darkest, rainiest night of the 
year, the carrier of Route No. 19 plans to lure 
Renfro to a desolate place where he hopes to 
give him a beating. But Renfro, who has been 
keen on the trail of the Insurance Mystery, 
stumbles on the body of the man who is sup- 
posed to be dead, and he wins the reward which 
the Insurance company has offered for the lo- 
cation of Clyde Truesdale. 


THE RISE OF ROUTE 19 
or 

Renfro Gets a Regular Detective Badge 

“Old Grief” has now been made a respect- 
able route under Renfro Horn’s careful carrier 
service, and the Globe has the largest number 
of subscribers in that section of the city, so to 
test Renfro Horn’s fighting spirit, Bruce, the 
circulation manager, offers Renfro Route 19, 
one of the bad routes along the river front, 
where the house boats are moored, and a better 
route in a better part of the city. 

But Renfro Horn, being in quest of success 
and excitement takes Route 19 and thus begins 
an interesting series of adventures for this boy 
carrier, who is the peer of the city’s best detec- 
tives. It ends with the Mayor of the city pin- 
ning on his coat lapel a regular detective badge, 
because Renfro has found the stolen finger 
prints. 



THE WHITE BAG’S SECRET 
or 

Renfro Horn Trails Down the Thieving Dog. 

By Stephen Rudd. 

The jewels of Mrs. Laidlaw Garth have 
mysteriously disappeared. Mary Dugan’s 
Cousin, Bridget O’Hara, is the maid in the 
house and is under suspicion. 

Renfro and Mary believe she is innocent. 
Through the location of one of his old paper 
bags, Renfro gets a clue which leads him to 
believe that Mrs. Garth’s dog, “Bluff,” stole the 
jewels. He and Mary set out to find them, and 
they are successful, of course. 

But there is thrill in this story for any red 
blooded boy. 

Published by the R. H. Gore Publishing Co. 


THE CLUE OF THE TWISTED PAPER, 
or 

The Mystery of the Lost Girl. 

By Stephen Rudd. 

Can a paper, which a newspaper carrier boy 
twists into a roll and throws on a porch, con- 
tain a clue to the identity of the girl who has 
forgotten who she is or where she comes from. 
Renfro Horn, the carrier boy Detective, proves 
this can be done. 

He and Mary Dugan do it. 

And the lost girl — well she is a wonder child. 
But read all about this absorbing mystery in 
“The Clue of the Twisted Paper/’ It’s coming 
soon. 

Published by the R. H. Gore Publishing Co. 
























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